As we celebrate health discuss World Health Day today, let’s take a sneak peek into the shifting trends in health.  The health market today revolves around the concept of “Returning to Nature” .  Ancient treatment techniques are stealing the limelight in today’s medical arena.

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Healthcare tourism in India is a story of excellent planning, foresight, vision of recognized Indian medical legends in the field of health care.

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Consumers increasingly are trying alternatives to their local hospitals and doctors, from going abroad for less-costly surgery to seeking quick, basic care at new clinics in drugstores and discounters, experts say.

The new phenomenon of medical tourism—or international health travel—has received a good deal of wide-eyed attention of late. While one newspaper or blog giddily touts the fun 'n sun side of treatment abroad, another issues dire Code Blue warnings about filthy hospitals, shady treatment practices, and procedures gone bad. As with most things in life, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Medical tourism -- the phenomenon in which hospitals in emerging markets offer "sun, sand and surgery" at low prices to patients from North America and Europe -- is gaining in popularity. While India lags behind countries like Thailand as a result of airport infrastructure and other bottlenecks, health care providers such as Apollo Hospitals are expanding at 10% a year. In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton at the recent Wharton India Economic Forum in Philadelphia, Suneeta Reddy, Apollo's executive director of finance, discussed the company's opportunities and challenges in this fast-growing market.

Thousands of Britons are heading abroad for cut-price treatment. We investigate the health tourism boom and asks if the benefits outweigh the risks.

British NHS dentists were accused this week of over-treating patients to maximise profits. A recent poll found that 7.4 million of us can't find an NHS dentist and the cost of private treatment is enough to make us grind our teeth. Is it any wonder then that more and more Brits seem to be travelling abroad for dental care?

India is hoping to expand its tourist industry – to include visitors with heart conditions and cataracts. Indeed, medical tourism, where foreigners travel abroad in search of low cost, world-class medical treatment, is gaining popularity in countries like India. The field has such lucrative potential that Indian finance minister Jaswant Singh called for India to become a “global health destination.” And, with prices at a fraction of those in the US or Britain, the concept will likely have broad consumer appeal – if people can overcome their prejudices about health care in developing countries.

The U.S. medical tourism industry, though burgeoning, is still in its early stages. Its development will be dictated by a variety of market factors and the reactions of a variety of market sectors including patients, insurers and employers. In addition, whether the industry can effectively demonstrate the quality of medical care abroad and provide a reasonable degree of comfort for patients and employers with respect to possible bad outcomes will affect its development. -Dale Van Demark, Member, Epstein, Becker Green P.C., Washington, DC.

As medical costs in the United States continue to rise, more and more employers are sending employees in need of costly surgeries overseas to receive treatment. A number of U.S. employers that fund their own health insurance plans have...

(NaturalNews) About 500,000 Americans traveled overseas last year to undergo surgeries that cost two to three times more in the United States, according to the National Coalition on Health Care.

NEW DELHI, India, - She's a rodeo barrel-racing champion who runs a 180-acre ranch in Oklahoma when she's not bouncing across back roads selling farms. Dodie Gilmore is a spry 60-year-old who loves the outdoors, but when she could no longer straddle her faithful horse, River, she knew it was time for a new hip.But how could she afford it? As an independent contractor for a small Coldwell Banker real estate franchise in Durant, Okla., she knew her privately....

"They should put me on the endangered-species list." A good primary-care doctor -- someone to coordinate your health care, help choose your specialists and be the first to diagnose just about any problem -- is the key to good medical treatment. But they're getting harder to come by. According to a 2007 study, it took new patients in Massachusetts an average 26 days to land an appointment with one.

Developing market: A huge market is rapidly developing in the United States, Canada and Europe of people who are going abroad to seek urgent medical attention, cosmetic surgery and rehabilitation in salubrious climes. The India alternative:The state minister for tourism Kodiveri Balakrishnan said: "As a state, Kerala is leading in the area of medical tourism? We are planning to announce a Medical Tourism Policy during the inaugural session" of the show.

Q & A with Dr. Jason CH Yap, Director, Healthcare Services, Singapore Tourism Board. Dr. Yap is a public health physician with nearly two decades in healthcare services and currently part of the SingaporeMedicine multi-agency initiative to promote and streamline services offered by Singapore's healthcare providers to international medical travelers.