Problems

Problems in the medical tourism market

Market dictated by reputation

As the beauty medical tourism industry grows rapidly, the reality is that there are more consumers than providers to support the market. Since there is no system to verify professional manpower in hospitals, market participants rely on reputation, and all decisions can be judged as information through incorrect reviews, and there is a possibility of regret over medical tourism, including plastic surgery, in the future. Hospitals that abuse these problems demand re-surgery, including re-treatment from consumers. In addition, side effects are occurring due to fake drugs and unverified professional personnel, and sales are also decreasing due to competitors' incorrect reputation (continuing the vicious cycle of the beauty medical tourism ecosystem through the management of non-professional personnel). This problem does not exist only in the beauty medical tourism industry, but also applies to most industries that provide medical services.

Out-of-service expenses

Markets where objectivity is not secured are formed through dishonest reviews and exaggerated advertisements. This indicates an increase in marketing costs as providers place more weight on marketing rather than improving the quality of medical services. Marketing costs soon lead to an increase in health care costs that consumers have to pay. Lack of accurate market control leads to price fluctuations for healthcare services, and opaque treatment prices are formed. Opaque treatment prices create a more closed market environment. This causes unnecessary price competition, which leads to a decline in the quality of medical services and medical products. All of this is repeating itself as a vicious cycle in the beauty medical tourism ecosystem.

Also, people with overseas nationality must go through a currency exchange process to pay for medical tourism services. In order to prevent the inconvenience of exchanging more than $10,000 due to the currency exchange fees and customs duties, they will visit South Korea by paying more fees through travel agencies or brokers. Usually, people of overseas nationality visit South Korea for medical tourism purposes, ranging from 5 million won to 50 million won. This includes shopping or travel in addition to medical tourism purposes after visiting South Korea, and in this case, additional expenditures are incurred, so considering the high cost of beauty medical tourism, the burden of additional costs due to currency exchange is high.

THE BURDEN OF EXCHANGE FEES INCREASES DUE TO THE EXISTING HIGH COST OF BEAUTY PLASTIC SURGERY

Lack of awareness of beauty medical tourism

Various data are uploaded within the community due to the increase in consumers' experience of beauty medical tourism, but it is difficult to obtain great value because it does not go through an objective refining process. (Question: What treatment works for you? Where are you good at the procedure well? What are the precautions before and after performing the procedure?) Because the value of this shared data is very low, the beauty medical tourism market is easily moved by its reputation. Therefore, securing the reliability of the shared data will be an urgent priority.

SOLVING MARKET PROBLEMS AND ESTABLISHING A HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEM THROUGH THE MEDITOC PLATFORM