Healthbase Helps Mexican Get Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Surgery in India

USA (SANEPR.com) June 24, 2008 -- Healthbase has helped a Mexican patient get hip resurfacing surgery in India. The unavailability of Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery drives not only scores of Americans and Canadians but also Mexicans and many others overseas to India and to other medical tourism destinations.

Healthbase, a Boston-based medical travel facilitator that connects Americans and Canadians to affordable and easily accessible health care services is also helping Mexicans get affordable and timely surgeries overseas. 53-year old Miguel de la Peña is one such patient from Mexico who had his Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery (BHR) in India, facilitated by Healthbase.

Mexico is a hot medical tourism destination itself for a variety of health care and dental care services. However, there are a few other departments, specifically hip resurfacing, where it is still catching up.

"Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery is a relatively new procedure in Mexico and so is not easily available in the country," says Saroja Mohanasundaram, CEO of Healthbase.

Even in the United States, the hip resurfacing procedure, which is a more bone-conserving procedure than total hip replacement, was approved by the FDA only in May 2006.

According to Saroja, "Most of our customers from the US, Canada and Mexico seeking Birmingham hip resurfacing prefer to go to countries in Asia and Europe like India, Thailand, Belgium and so on because the surgeons at our partner hospitals in those countries are much more experienced than their American, Canadian or Mexican counterparts."

Hip resurfacing, which is recommended for the younger active patients, is a technology that replaces the worn surfaces of the hip joint with caps of high carbide cobalt chrome. It differs from the conventional hip replacement in that it removes only the unhealthy bone and preserves the normal hip bone whereas the conventional total hip replacement procedure (THR) sacrifices a large quantity of normal bone.

For Miguel de la Peña, it meant being able to walk again.

Attesting to the top quality of care he received in India, Miguel says, "My surgery went very smoothly. Dr. Vijay Bose is a fantastically nice person, very knowledgeable and experienced. All the personnel at the Apollo Specialty hospital in Chennai - beginning with housekeeping and going through nurses, waiters, administrative personnel, doctors, healthcare technicians, etc. - were surprisingly professional, kind and lovely people."

Experience comes with practice. BHR being a relatively new procedure in North America, there are not many orthopedic surgeons there who are well-experienced in this surgery. In contrast - "Many surgeons on our provider network, for example, have performed more than a thousand such surgeries each," says Saroja.

Thanking Healthbase for all their efforts, Miguel adds, "I want to give a very special recognition and sincere thanks to Healthbase, since without all their efforts, hard work, attention, patience and kindness I would probably have not decided to have my surgery done in India. Thanks for removing all my concerns and leading me throughout the whole process."

The top quality of care along with the substantial price differential is drawing thousands to seek care abroad for orthopedic, cardiac, bariatric, dental, laparoscopic, cosmetic and other procedures through Healthbase.


About Healthbase Online Inc:
Healthbase, an award-winning Boston-based medical tourism and dental tourism facilitator, is a one-stop source for global medical and dental choices, connecting patients to leading hospitals around the world, through a secure, easy to use and information-rich award-winning web portal. Healthbase offers over 200 medical, dental, cosmetic and surgical procedures and helps patients seek top quality healthcare in various categories such as orthopedic, spinal, cardiac, bariatric, dental, laparoscopic, cosmetic, etc. Healthbase’s partner healthcare facilities are located in India, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Turkey, Belgium, Hungary, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico, and are expanding to the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador and Guatemala. To ensure that patients receive the best care possible, Healthbase works mainly with hospitals that have international accreditations like JCI, JCAHO and ISO. Healthbase caters to the needs of individual consumers, self-insured businesses, insurance carriers and third party administrators seeking affordable medical travel and dental travel options. To learn more, call 1-888-691-4584, email info.hb@healthbase.com or visit http://www.healthbase.com.