Medicine Estonia
The Medicine Estonia cluster is a promotional organisation supporting its members in increasing their export of medical services. Exports of medical services are growing strongly all over the world and cover travel for treatment, exports of service models, telemedicine solutions and other means of expanding businesses across borders.
Foreign patients have been coming to Estonia since the 1980s and they have appeared in steady streams to receive more and more treatments from more and more health service providers. This shows that Estonia has a good reputation as a destination for medical travel among patients and their accompanying families. Members of the cluster are also interested in opportunities for partnerships in other areas related to the export of medical services.
Medicine Estonia members are looking to bring the good reputation they have gained to more people, especially to partners mainly in neighbouring countries. One of the main roles of the cluster is to market the services of its members in target markets and to create an attractive image for the Estonian service providers, primarily by:
1. FINDING PARTNERS
Medicine Estonia helps find partners for interested parties to work with in Estonia and in the target markets of the members of the cluster, and it organises meetings between potential partners.
Please contact us if you are an intermediary, agent, insurer or tourism operator and are interested in the services offered by the members of Medicine Estonia, and if you would like to add medical services in Estonia to your own list of services, buy medical services from Estonia or work with a member of the cluster in some other way that concerns the export of services. Agency agreements should be signed with each service provider individually and the precise contract terms should be negotiated directly. It is the opinion of members that intermediation of patients is a service that should be charged for, and they are prepared to pay a fee for it that reflect the medical travel market practice for the particular service.
Agency agreements and fees for passing on patients. Agency agreements for passing on patients should be signed and the terms for them discussed with the appropriate individual Medicine Estonia member. It is the opinion of members that intermediation for medical travel is a service that should be charged for, and that the charge should reflect the market practice for the particular service. The exact terms of each contract are a matter to be agreed between the agent and the medical service provider.
2. ORGANISING VISITS
Medicine Estonia organises regular visits for potential cooperation partners to all of its members, covering private and publicly-funded clinics, hospitals, laboratories, rehabilitation and research centres. Such visits are the best way to find out about the high-quality services available in Estonia, speak directly to doctors, ask specific practical questions, make sure about the language skills of the staff, confirm the standard of the equipment and how up to date it is, and see the living conditions.
The cluster organises two types of visit:
• The all-inclusive three-day visit goes to all the service providers and allows meetings with many doctors, clinic directors and managers who work with foreign patients, with the visit to each service provider lasting between thirty and ninety minutes. This is recommended for those who want to get a general picture of the partnership options available in Estonia.
• The service-specific visit takes visitors to one particular service provider to meet specific doctors. This is recommended for those who already know what is available in Estonia and need more precise, specific or direct information.
If you would like to join a visit, please contact us and we will agree a date, the services to be visited and whether and how the costs can be covered.
The cluster also organises visits to target markets. If you would like to present your own clinic, hospital or health centre to the Estonian service providers, please contact us.
3. ADVERTISING AND MEDIA
Please contact us if you are interested in presenting the services of any member of Medicine Estonia in the media. Specific advertising proposals are also welcome.
4. ORGANISING AND ATTENDING CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITIONS
Medicine Estonia organises marketing events, seminars and conferences to present the services offered by members for specific target groups and the general public.
The cluster doesn’t take any fee for its services.
Medicine Estonia is a Service Industry Association project that is funded by the members themselves. The project was supported by the Enterprise Estonia with funds from the European Union’s Regional Development Funds (01.05.2012-31.12.2014).
For more information see: Medical Services and Members.
DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION PROJECT
With the project professional trainings will be carried out in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan for hospital managers and doctors. The following activities are planned:
- Training in Estonia for the doctors and residents from the destination countries.
- Estonian doctors’ short-term employment in the destination country
In addition, several events are planned to raise awareness and gather new contacts:
- Estonia’s top doctors performance at the destination countries conferences
- In cooperation with the Estonian embassies organizing specialized seminars in destination countries in order to introduce Estonian health care sector, to educate doctors and to establish new useful contacts.
IF YOU ARE A PATIENT
Although Medicine Estonia is more of a marketing organisation than an intermediary for patients, patients can also use our website to find information that is important to them on the services available in Estonia.
If you are looking for a doctor for a health check, diagnosis, treatment, operation, advice, a second opinion on your current treatment plan, or anything similar:
1. choose the service you need here: Medical Services
2. choose the service provider you want from the list there and
3. contact them directly. Contact people and contact details can be found in the description of each service.
You can find the answers to a lot of practical questions about medical travel here: Tips for Treatment