The Growing Importance of Social Networks in Medical Tourism
In the burgeoning field of medical tourism, healthcare providers strive to attract international patients with competitive pricing and innovative procedures. However, as the industry evolves, the distinguishing factor for these international patient programs lies in building trust and fostering long-term relationships.

The social network of a patient, including friends and family, plays a significant role in healthcare decision-making and post-procedure lifestyle maintenance. Medical tourists often seek the advice and assistance of their loved ones for their healthcare needs. Therefore, service providers in the medical tourism sector should view this social network as a vital part of the patient’s healthcare team. This network:

Assists in making key healthcare decisions
Aids in post-treatment recovery
Helps manage the patient’s lifestyle post-treatment
The Role of Friends and Family in the Healthcare System
Friends and family serve as informal caregivers, playing a crucial role in a patient’s healthcare journey and the functioning of the healthcare system. Patients often involve their loved ones in their health efforts, asking them to remind them to take medications or to avoid buying unhealthy food. This involvement encourages patients to make healthier choices, aiding in recovery and lifestyle management.

For instance, a patient who has recently undergone obesity surgery needs to maintain a healthy diet and regular exercise routine. Committing to go to the gym with a friend three times a week or having a family competition to reach a certain number of steps each day can promote healthy behaviors.

Effective Communication with a Patient’s Social Network
Medical tourists often seek the advice of family and friends before deciding to book a treatment abroad. Therefore, healthcare providers should consider them as part of the healthcare team and communicate effectively with them. Understanding their role in the decision-making process can be extremely beneficial in reinforcing prescribed treatments or provided information.

Tips for Communicating with a Patient’s Social Network
Establish a point of contact in the family to relay information to other family members and friends
Use their names and the patient’s name while communicating to build rapport
Strive to establish a connection to build trust
Provide pre- and post-procedure guidelines to the team
Educate the team about the procedure’s pros and cons and discuss available options
Set clear, realistic expectations so everyone understands and respects the outcomes
Create a circle of trust with the team
Respecting Patient Privacy
While it’s important to involve a patient’s social network, healthcare providers must also respect and protect the patient’s privacy. During the consultation before traveling abroad for treatment, it’s crucial to understand how the patient views the caregiver’s role. In many cases, the caregiver may be a spouse or friend who is there to reinforce the healthcare provider’s advice or express the patient’s concerns. It’s essential to check with the patient before including such a companion in the healthcare team. This approach builds trust and fosters a long-term relationship with the patient.

The Benefits of Engaging a Patient’s Social Network in Medical Tourism
Involving a patient’s social network in their healthcare journey is not a new concept in medical tourism. It’s an integral part of what healthcare providers are already doing to improve safety and quality of care.

Engaging a patient’s social network can enhance numerous aspects of a healthcare provider’s performance, including:

Patient experience of care
Patient safety
Quality of services
Patient outcomes
Employee satisfaction
In conclusion, the numerous individual benefits of involving patients and their social networks in the healthcare team lead to improved performance of healthcare providers, contributing to the growth of the medical tourism sector.

Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have always been the main treatment methods for malignant tumors. In recent years, with a deeper exploration of gene technology, the development of molecular targeted therapy and biotherapy has received great attention at home and abroad. Biotherapy combined with traditional treatments has achieved remarkable results in improving the quality of life and prolonging survival of patients, which has brought hope to patients with advanced cancer.

Biotherapy refers to the application of biological response modifiers, including all biological agents, chemical agents, and biotechnological methods to directly or indirectly inhibit tumor growth or reduce treatment-related adverse reactions. These modifiers can change the biological response of the body by immunity, gene expression, and endocrine or cell signal transduction pathways.

Biological therapy is divided into cell therapy and non-cell therapy, and currently, cell therapy is dominant, which includes four types.

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK)cells—”mechanized infantry” of cellular immunotherapy
With strong anti-tumor activity and non-restrictive tumor-killing advantages, CIK cells can be used in patients of any stage of tumor and are widely used internationally. This cell has a strong ability to accurately identify and kill tumor cells, especially for treatment after surgery or radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It can eliminate residual small metastatic lesions, prevent tumor cells from spreading and recurring, and improve the body’s immunity.

Dendritic cells (DCs)—”signal corps ” of cellular immunotherapy
DCs are currently known to be the most powerful antigen-presenting cells in vivo. After expansion and culture in vitro and sensitization of tumor antigens, they can be returned to the patient to promote the proliferation and differentiation of the patient’s T cells into cytotoxic T cells. At the same time, B lymphocytes are activated, and the antibody immune system is fully activated to produce efficient and specific anti-tumor effects.

Natural killer (NK) cells—”armored soldier” of cellular immunotherapy
NK cells are important immune cells in the body, which are not only related to anti-tumor, anti-viral infection and immune regulation, but also are involved in the occurrence of hypersensitivity and autoimmune diseases in some cases. The application of NK cells in tumor treatment has already undergone a large number of clinical and preclinical studies, which is another promising direction for tumor cell therapy.

CTL/TCR-T/CAR-Tcells—”precision-guided munition ” that kills tumor cells
CTL cells, namely cytotoxic T lymphocytes, have always been a hot spot for immunotherapy of solid tumors (especially malignant melanoma, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, etc.). The tumor-killing mechanism is clear, and it can directly kill tumor cells by releasing two cytotoxins. Recently, T cells modified by cell engineering have gradually become a new focus of global scientists. T cells modified with T cell receptor genes (TCR-T) and T cells modified with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T) are both T cells modified by transgenic technology, and both show stronger anti-tumor activity than previous CTL cells with a good clinical application prospect.

Biotherapy has small side effects. In addition, by stimulating the body’s own immune system, it has a systemic anti-tumor effect with a wider scope of action. It is especially suitable for malignant tumors with multiple lesions or extensive metastasis. Moreover, the targets of biotherapy are clear without side effects on normal cells.

Biological treatment after tumor surgery can significantly enhance the immune system function of patients, helping remove residual cancer cells and micrometastasis in the body after surgery, and reducing the chance of local recurrence and distant metastasis. Carrying out biotherapy during the interval of radiotherapy and chemotherapy can also help patients to enhance the tolerance of the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, as well as the ability to resist tumors, thus improving the comprehensive treatment effect of malignant tumors.

With the growing threat of coronavirus infection that has wreaked havoc on every country on the planet, wearing protective clothing such as N95 masks or respirators has become the order of the day. Covid-19, which was declared as a global pandemic by the WHO, ravages the lives of millions of people across the globe and continues to do so, without any respite. Due to its highly transmissible feature, the CDC recommends the use of facemasks to limit the uncontrollable spread of coronavirus. Moreover, according to recent studies, coronavirus can spread from asymptomatic people at an early stage, which makes every person susceptible to the deadly disease. As the infectious disease plays havoc on lives and economy, people are scurrying around for protective gear such as PPE, facemasks, and N95 respirators. The unpredictable surge in the demand for facemasks and other protective gear has left people in the lurch.

The rise in demand for facemask and PPE kits has propelled companies to shift their focus on manufacturing these essential life-saving items. As people began hoarding facemasks and N95 respirators, those working on the frontline such as the healthcare workers were left unprotected. N95 masks and respirators are highly essential for those who work with Covid19 patients, as they are more susceptible to contracting the virus.

Reasons to Opt for N95 Mask Bulk Purchase

Healthcare professionals

While the need to wear facemasks as protection against the novel coronavirus stands true, it is also important to understand that these masks must be replaced every six hours if you are working for a prolonged period. This is particularly essential for frontline healthcare workers who care for seriously ill patients. N95 masks must be sanitized carefully or discarded after each use, which emphasizes the need to buy this specific protective gear in bulk. Unlike other people, healthcare professionals need to wear these masks while treating Covid19 patients. As these masks are discarded along with the virus protection clothing, it is quite essential to purchase these masks in bulk so that you can replace them often.

Slashed prices

When you choose N95 mask bulk purchase, you can also benefit from slashed prices as most of the manufacturers and dealers sell these masks at a reduced price rate when bought in bulk amount. Moreover, these facemasks are in great demand due to the consistent rise in the number of people being infected by the novel coronavirus. Buying it in bulk at a reduced price rate is a wise idea as the prices may increase in the future when there is a shortage of the product and an increase in fatalities. N95 respirator masks are effective in protecting against Covid19, according to recent surveys, which is the reason it is used in most of the hospitals and healthcare centers by doctors and paramedical staff.

Many of the Happy Being online Pilates class members are working long hours from home at the moment and are asking what is the best work station arrangement (computer, table, chair set up) for good posture. Here are some top tips for a happy back, neck and shoulders.

1. Lumbar Support
Sit at a chair (preferably with arms) with a high back and a good backrest. Make sure you are sitting in an upright position and not sitting at the edge of the seat. You can roll a towel up and place it at the curve of your lower back for lumbar support. If you have an office chair already great but if not think about getting one if you are going to be spending even one day working from home now long term. You could always ask your office to loan you one or buy it for you.

2. Feet Placement and Leg Position
Place your feet flat on the floor with 90 degrees behind the knees when sitting on the chair, toes and heels in line, legs hip-distance apart. No crossing legs!!

3. Arm Position
Rest your hands on the keyboard with a 90-degree angle at your elbows (best with a chair that has armrests). Your upper arm should be as vertical as possible. This will open out your chest and shoulder muscles and help prevent soreness in the upper back and neck.

4. Keyboard Height
It is critical that you adjust your chair to allow your forearms to be parallel to the floor and level to the keyboard. If you don’t have an adjustable chair use cushions to raise yourself up and a cushion is also more comfortable to sit on.

5. Keyboard Set-Up
Your keyboard should be positioned so that the bottom of your wrist isn’t touching the edge of your desk or keyboard constantly as this is much more likely to inflame your wrist flexor tendons (lower wrist) and you’ll be more prone to get something called carpal tunnel syndrome. To prevent unwanted repetitive stress injuries use a protective wrist pad.

6. Set Your Screen At The Correct Height
The screen should be central to your body position and not off to the side. The screen should be at eye level (you are looking ahead at the centre of the computer screen) so if you are using a laptop on a table you are never going to have the screen at the correct height. Use the laptop as a screen lift it up on to books or get a stand and buy a separate keyboard and mouse.

7. Mix It Up!
Sit at a chair for part of the day, a standing desk for the rest and/ or a swiss ball/ fit ball. The mobility you get from sitting on a swiss ball improves fluid and nutrition delivery to the discs of the spine. A swiss ball also improves overall blood flow keeping the muscles of the legs and torso active. You’ll have to switch on those core muscles whether you like it or not for balance too. Always rotate though with either chair sitting, ball sitting or standing. Don’t spend 8hrs doing the one thing.

8. Invest In Your Desk Set Up And Your Body
If you think you are going to be working from home long term even one day a week invest in a good chair with a backrest and a headrest if you can. Also a table at the correct height and think about light in the room and where it is coming from. Have you got enough light or are you peering and taking that head of yours into a forward head posture which can bring on all kinds of things like headaches?

9. Give Yourself A Break
Every 30 mins eg. tea, coffee, water or toilet break for 5mins just to get up and move around. Set a repeat alarm on your phone/ computer to remind you to take a break.

10. Happy, Healthy Back = Online Pilates Classes
Release those tense muscles and treat your body to weekly online Pilates class in your lunch hour or after work during the week if you want to improve your posture, become stronger and more flexible. You’re not travelling to and from work so you have that little bit of extra time to fit a class into your day. You could also have a monthly remedial massage to relieve stresses and strains on your body.