Patients Beyond Borders Focus On

Patients Beyond Borders,® the best-selling consumer reference guide on medical tourism, is pleased to announce the release of FOCUS ON: Asan Medical Center (AMC), profiling South Korea’s largest nonprofit hospital. FOCUS ON: AMC will feature the medical center’s world-class facilities, highlight its pioneering developments in areas such as organ transplantation and coronary artery intervention, and showcase its many world-renowned centers of excellence.

Established in June 1989 by Hyundai Motor Company founder Chung Ju-Yung (also known as Asan), AMC’s mission was to create a hospital with an emphasis on "caring for life and sharing with those in need and pain." Today, the main facility--one of the largest hospital campuses in the world--encompasses more than 4 million square feet and houses over 2,700 beds. AMC also has longstanding partnerships with the University of Ulsan College of Medicine (Seoul), Partners Harvard Medical International (Boston), Imperial College London, and various hospitals across Asia.

"Korea has some of the best healthcare and medical infrastructure in the world, and Asan Medical Center has clearly secured its place as one of the country’s leading providers,” said Josef Woodman, president and CEO of Healthy Travel Media. "Revered for its high success rates with organ transplantation and treatment of cancer and vascular disease, Asan is also well known for disease prevention. And the savings are substantial--averaging 20% to 60% less than US costs.”

Offering patient-centered care and international partnerships for post-operative care, coupled with full-time English-speaking specialists, patient escorts and translation services, and other international patient services, the center currently attracts more than 3,300 global patients per year. AMC’s patient-centered mindset is further manifested in its surroundings, including rooftop parks, multicultural eateries, retail shops, on-site library, and more.

"We believe that partnering with Patients Beyond Borders will provide even greater branding and visibility for us, particularly in promoting our facility to the international patient,” said Dr. Joon Pio-Hong, MD, PhD, MBA, chief of the Plastic Surgery Department and director of Asan’s International Office. "This new digital and online format will be far more accessible to healthcare consumers.”

FOCUS ON: AMC will be accessible from a variety of sources, including the Patients Beyond Borders website, AMC’s website, Kindle, GoogleBooks, Apple iBooks and other eBook readers, iPhone and other mobile devices, medical, business, and reference libraries worldwide, and all popular social networks.