“There are a number of stories of people returning home with very high care needs,” says Crooks, adding she is committed to publishing her group’s research in open access journals. “We’re just touching the edge of the iceberg regarding issues related to medical tourism.”

Continue reading at SFU News for the full article. Contact International Healthcare Providers to find out how we can assist and guide you to ensure that you get the care you need without the risk.

Let me share the remarkable journey of one patient. At 48 years of age, Gerry was a hockey coach, a personal trainer and in the final training stages for a triathalon. While doing upright rows, one day, Gerry felt a deep pain in his back followed by a burning that radiated down the outside of his leg. Three months later the only thing that changed in Gerry’s world was that the pain increased. Despite trips to his doctors, he had yet to receive any medical intervention.

You can read the full article at Canadian Chiropractor.

From Synergy Health Concepts

To Our Patients and Families,

Over the past year, the physicians of Pacific Interventionalists have recognized the increasing complexity of CCSVI care.  As one of the leaders in CCSVI, we realized the need to form a specialized medical group to improve the comprehensive care for all CCSVI patients.  Thus, over the last several months, the physicians from Pacific Interventional have been working on developing a new, unique medical group to focus entirely on the diagnosis and treatment of CCSVI.

We are pleased to announce the launch of Synergy Health Concepts.  This specialized medical group was developed by Pacific Interventionalists to focus entirely on the diagnosis and treatment of CCSVI.  By forming Synergy, we feel that we can further improve the care that we deliver to our patients.  This includes all facets of the CCSVI process, including the initial imaging and diagnosis of CCSVI, the procedure used to treat CCSVI, travel to and from Southern California, as well as the post-operative follow-up and research. To our knowledge, there is no other medical group in the World like Synergy specializing entirely on CCSVI.  We feel that this dedication and focus will result in better care for our patients.

It’s important for our patients to understand that with Synergy Health Concepts they are getting the same physicians with the same experience and expertise that they expected from Pacific Interventionalists.  However, by working with a specialized medical group, they are able to enhance their CCSVI care through our singular focus.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in your care,

Synergy Health Concepts

www.synergyhealthconcepts.com

• Months waiting for a CT scan: Three.
• Months waiting for an MRI: Six more.
• Months waiting for meeting with neurosurgeon: 19
• Number of pain-killers taken each day: 25
• Months spent in bed unable to move: 18
• Number of times he thought of taking his own life: At least once.

The easiest way for him to track the long wait for help, and the hardest to stomach, is to look at his seven-year-old daughter.

“I haven’t lifted my daughter since she was born. I have never picked her up. I have never been able to.”

The latest number was too much to bear: A note from a London doctor saying Jubenville could indeed get an appointment to consider botox injections to alleviate his constant headaches and pain – in 29 months.

Tired of waiting, Jubenville called a Windsor company that specializes in getting Canadians out of Canada for medical treatment.

The company, International Health Care Providers, found a U.S. doctor who does the botox injections.

Jubenville called the doctor’s office.

A receptionist got back in an hour. What she said made him laugh.

“Well, first of all, I would like to apologize for the wait, but I can’t get you in until Thursday.”

Jubenville still laughs about it an interview a week later. “I was expecting months.”

Jubenville is one of thousands of Canadians leaving the country each year to get medical help. Patients call it surgical or medical tourism, partly because many companies offer recovery in a resort.

Some companies that send patients abroad prefer to call it global health care.

Whatever it’s called, it’s a thriving business.

In a three-part series that begins today, The Free Press takes a look at the business and politics of medical tourism and profiles some of the ordinary Canadians seeking treatment elsewhere.

Companies that send Canadians to the U.S., India, Costa Rica, Europe and other places are springing up each year.

It’s difficult to get a handle on the number of Canadians heading overseas or across the border in the U.S. for help, but it could reach the hundreds of thousands.

“Medical tourism has always been with us,” says Dr. Jeff Nisker, co-ordinator of health ethics for the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.

“It has always been a way for wealthy people to jump the queue. The difference now is that the queues are longer. Therefore, the number of people willing to jump the queues is greater.”

Medical tourism is also growing because some countries offer services – such as organ transplants, surrogate surgery or stem cell procedures – that aren’t offered in Canada and Europe, Nisker says.

Even within Canada itself, medical tourism is growing, he adds. More people – the well educated and well-off – are leaving their community or province to get private health care elsewhere within Canada.

“It creates a two-tier system,” Nisker says. “It underlines the deterioration of our health-care system.”

Despite studies dating from the 1970s calling for more funding, successive governments in Canada have refused to put in the money to educate enough nurses and doctors and open enough facilities to take care of Canadians, Nisker says.

“We have one-third the doctors and one-third the nurses (per capita) than the rest of the world.”

Christine Elliott, health-care critic for the Ontario Tories, agrees medical tourism is a sign health care in the province is in trouble.

People shouldn’t have to travel overseas to get care, she says.

“We are already paying a lot in taxes and, in Ontario, a health- care premium,” she says.

But the system doesn’t need more money. It needs more efficiency – such as electronic record-keeping – to move patients through more quickly, Elliott says.

As medical professionals and politicians wrangle what’s wrong the system, people such as Kelly Meloche, head of Windsor’s International Health Care Providers, are watching a sea change in Canadian culture.

“We don’t have a precedence to acquire our own health care. We are not accustomed to questioning who gives health care. We just sit there and we wait,” Meloche says.

That’s changing, Meloche says, and she points to Jubenville, one of her clients, as a example.

Jubenville, 43, was born and raised in Windsor, and joined the family vision care business.

Thirteen years ago, he woke up one day with a stiff neck. Like many people, he just let it go, figuring it would work itself out.

After three weeks, he went to his family doctor and got a prescription for muscle relaxants.

“It never went away.”

He started on the long and circuitous path of waiting to see a specialist, waiting to get a test after seeing the specialist, waiting for the test results, waiting for a consultation about the tests, then signing up for new tests and so on.

Meanwhile, the pain spread to his right arm.

“The only thing they could do for me was give me pain-killers, the whole family of nightmare pills. I was becoming an addict. But what do you do? What are your options?”

Jubenville had no intention of leaving Canada to get health care. First of all, he trusted the system.

And second, “I always had that notion it was going to cost millions of dollars to go somewhere else.”

The pain in his neck became so bad he ended up spending days in bed. The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months.

“I was 18 months in bed waiting for that first consultation. Then I couldn’t take it anymore.”

The pain grew so great he took an ambulance to the emergency department, quickly saw a neurosurgeon and two weeks later got surgery fusing some of the discs in his spinal cord.

“As soon as I woke up the next day my arm was back. It was great. ”

The relief didn’t last long.

“I started getting migraine headaches like you wouldn’t believe.”

From 2005 to 2007 he took weekly shots of Demerol for the headaches and Gravol to prevent the side-effect – vomiting.

Specialists told him there was nothing they could do because his spine had been repaired already.

“That’s when I ended up going a little mental. I told my family, ‘guys, I don’t know long I can do this for. Somebody better find somebody in the world, I don’t care where.’ ”

A Google search turned up Meloche’s company.

“Before I knew it, I was in Tampa, Florida, at the Laser Spine Institute.”

There, doctors told Jubenville a narrowing of the main nerve routes, called stenosis, was pushing pressure on his spine.

And there, doctors did a laser procedure not available in Canada, Jubenville says.

“I walked off the operating table. I felt great. It was crazy. It was almost surreal.”

As it turned out, the 2007 operation worked only for a time. Things looked great for a year and half, then the headaches returned.

Jubenville began another round of weekly injections to freeze the muscles in his neck and offered some relief. Once again, Jubenville had to cut back his time at work to half days. Every day, he had to lie down for several hours to relax his neck.

“It felt like my muscles are freaking out, like someone is taking a towel and twisting it and they just don’t stop,” he says.

More online research led him to London doctors, who offer botox injections for muscle spasms.

One doctor said he couldn’t do it.

On March 4, he received a letter from the second doctor. Sure the doctor could see him – in 29 months.

“Two and a half years and I am going to have to endure taking drugs I don’t need to take. And again, possibly not being diagnosed then.”

By then, Jubenville had already called up Meloche at International Health Care Providers and crossed the river to Detroit. In the space of three hours one day two weeks ago, he was tested and received botox injection.

He’s still waiting to see how well the injection works.

The botox injections cost him about $1,200. The laser surgery in Florida, which Jubenville still credits for relieving much of the pain, cost $17,000, “We just took a loan. We bought a car we never got. That’s how we look at the $17,000. It wasn’t out of reach, but it wasn’t something I would like to do once a year.”

“I don’t want to smash our (health-care) system,” Jubenville says.

“Our system works if you don’t have any serious issues. It works if the doctors know what you have. If you don’t, the doctor refers you to a specialist, you wait one to two years, and if they don’t know what’s wrong, you are right back to square one, waiting.”

HEALTH-CARE EXODUS

According to Statistics Canada’s most recent report on the issue in 2005, about 530,000 Canadians reported having trouble getting to see to a specialist, 208,000 had trouble getting non-emergency surgery and 280,000 had trouble getting diagnostic tests.

In Ontario, the jump in the number of applications to OHIP for out-of-country procedures jumped 25% to 30%, between 2001 and 2007, said a Health Ministry spokesperson.

Those numbers have levelled off — to about 4,000 a year — costing OHIP about $100 million a year. And that only represents Ontario residents who try to get funding for their procedures.

Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital handled 385 in-patient cases and 5,897 outpatient cases from Canada in 2009 alone, according to officials there.

Seeking an answer to that seemingly simple question careens us into a field of ethical landmines and bedeviling public policy challenges.

Medicare, while fundamentally a public insurance program designed to spread risk, has its roots in social justice – the notion that basic healthcare services should be available to all regardless of ability to pay. Implicit too in the medicare model is that there will be rationing, that the care offered will not be limitless, lest the system become unaffordable.

Medical tourism, on the other hand, epitomizes the commercialization of medicine, the notion that if you have enough money you can get care when or where you want – equity, cost-effectiveness, and sometimes even legal and ethical considerations be damned.

Medical tourism is big business, worth an estimated $80-billion (U.S.) annually and growing.

Because of the high cost of care in the United States, Americans travel in droves. An estimated six million will seek medical care abroad this year. Countries like India, Thailand and Costa Rica woo these patients aggressively.

Should Canada, a country that is a stone’s throw away, do the same?

Would selling services to wealthy Americans be a good way of generating money to pay for the soaring costs of medicare?

Our surgical suites and diagnostic imaging equipment often sit idle. But if we sell medical care to foreign citizens, will it drain vital human resources (doctors, nurses, etc.) from the beleaguered public system?

And if we sell medical services to foreigners, can we refuse to sell them to our own citizens, even if they are paying to jump the queue?

Despite our universal health system, a growing number of Canadians are travelling abroad for care.

One of the few studies on the phenomenon, a 2008 report by international consultants McKinsey & Co., found that 7 per cent of medical tourists are Canadians. If you do the math, Canadians are spending around $5-billion a year out-of-country for health care.

If they are willing to throw around that kind of cash, what does it say about perceptions of Canada’s healthcare system, and about our ability to pay more domestically?

The McKinsey study found that, globally, 11 per cent of medical tourists travel for plastic surgery, like tummy tucks and facelifts, while more than half travel for general surgery and orthopedic care, new hips, bypass surgery and the like.

The principal reason given for travelling is “enhanced care,” meaning that patients feel the technology and skills of surgeons are better than in their home country, and that the care is faster and cheaper.

While a significant number of Canadians travel to the United States for care because they feel the quality is superior (à la Danny Williams), a growing number are heading off the beaten path, where prices are lower and ethics more flexible.

For example, patients with multiple sclerosis have been flocking to clinics in Costa Rica and Poland to undergo “liberation therapy,” a controversial procedure to open up veins in the neck. They travel because the surgery is not offered in Canada; it is deemed unproven and hence unworthy of coverage at this time.

Patients are paying in the range of $10,000-$15,000 for this procedure and sometimes doing fundraising events to get the money. Medical tourism is no longer restricted to the ultra-rich but, increasingly, it preys on the desperate.

Canadian patients with spinal cord injuries are traveling to China and Mexico for stem cell transplants, another therapy that has generated glowing testimonials but for which there is little scientific evidence.

With waits stretching years, those in need of a kidney transplant can travel to India or China for instant relief. But where does this supply of organs come from? Are they purchased from the desperately poor for a pittance or harvested from prisoners?

Similarly, when Canadians travel abroad for fertility treatment, they can purchase eggs and sperm and “rent a womb” from surrogates, commercial acts that are not permitted in this country.

If Canada prosecutes those who commit sexual crimes against children abroad, should it also crack down on those who essentially buy body parts and exploit women reproductively (if not sexually)?

A more practical, but no less thorny issue, is who is on the hook for follow-up care?

With a kidney transplant, for example, the surgery is a relatively cheap part of the procedure. It’s subsequently, when a person requires a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs and follow-up care, that the costs add up. And what happens when the transplant doesn’t take – a not-uncommon problem? Does that patient, who jumped the queue by going to India, now get priority for another kidney in Canada? Or do we have the right – legal and ethical – to send them back to India?

Similarly, if an MS patient travels abroad for an experimental treatment, what happens when he or she suffers a blood clot that requires expensive follow-up care and even additional surgery? Is medicare responsible for those costs, or is the individual? And what are the obligations on a physician called upon to “fix” a dubious procedure that she knows little about in the first place?

If a Canadian breaks his neck while skiing in the Alps and is left quadriplegic, medicare will cover those costs, no questions asked. If that same person seeks an experimental treatment like stem cells in hopes of walking again but instead suffers expensive complications like a brain tumour, should medicare treat him any differently?

There are no easy answers to these ethical quandaries. But there is no benefit either from keeping our heads buried in the sand.

Medical tourism is here to stay, so we need to debate and understand the pros and cons, chief among them the impact on medicare.

Forget golf courses and fancy spas. The hot amenity for second-home resorts in Central America these days is a medical facility.

“People are asking for it,” said Kevin Fleming, who has included a 40-bed clinic in plans for Seaside Mariana, a 923-acre, or 374-hectare, project he is building on the coast of Nicaragua. “We’ve seen a real shift in consumer response.”

With second-home sales sluggish, an array of developers in the region are planning health care tie-ins, from Botox clinics to assisted living centers for retirees.

“In every development we have a say in, we’re promoting the idea of including a medical facility,” said Bill Clover, president of Panorama International, a consultancy with headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.

One of those projects is Playa Secreta, a resort with a marina, cruise ship dock, golf courses and more than 2,000 residential units now under development in El Salvador. Plans call for a clinic or small hospital on the grounds. “Developers are looking for an edge to attract people,” Mr. Clover said. “They are also aware of the aging buyer in the residential market.”

This is new territory for developers of Central American properties. While many hotels in the region promote packages tied to health treatments and weight loss programs, only a handful include a medical facility on site.

That is a contrast to countries like Thailand and India, which have well-established medical tourism industries, primarily catering to Europeans. But the United States — the key driver in the Central American market for second homes — is only now embracing the concept.

With health care costs rising, 1.6 million Americans are expected to leave the United States for some form of medical treatment by 2012, up from 750,000 in 2007, according to Deloitte, which tracks the industry.

The cost of care in Central America and Mexico is at least 25 percent to 40 percent less than in the United States, says Paul H. Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

But the trend could slow if more insurance companies decide not to cover procedures performed overseas, Mr. Keckley said. And there is little solid evidence that medical services can sell vacation villas.

“We haven’t been able to translate demand for health and wellness into second home demand,” said Chad Martin, global research analyst with E360, a North Carolina company that regularly surveys buyers of second homes.

Still, developers in Central America are embracing the concept, eager for any way to jump-start sales. Last year a discussion about how to integrate medical tourism into developments was one of the best attended sessions of the annual Central America Tourism and Hotel Investment Exchange, said James E. Burba, president of Burba Hotel Network, the California company that produced the event for developers and investors.

In the past, medical tourism did not surface as an opportunity for developers “because regular real estate was so strong,” Mr. Burba said.

In many ways, medical facilities are a natural fit for tropical resorts. Patients can convalesce in style; retirees can live inexpensively in an exotic location, without worrying about the availability of medical care.

From a business standpoint, a health care facility attached to a second-home project can attract local citizens and expatriate residents, serving as a hedge against the ebbs and flows of the tourism market. A health care component can also make a project more appealing to lenders, some of whom are wary of financing vacation-home developments.

Larry Foster, a consultant based in Mazatlán, Mexico, is helping developers convert projects once planned as second homes into assisted living centers. “There are a ton of condominium projects in Mexico that are half-finished that would lend themselves to retrofitting,” Mr. Foster said.

Developers are also trying to innovate, targeting different niches in the medical treatment market.

On the Placencia peninsula of Belize, managers at the Villas at Cocoplum are planning to build a clinic offering an experimental migraine headache treatment. Patients would pay a minimum of $5,000 per treatment and could rent condos in the project, which also offers waterfront units for sale at $300,000 to $400,000, marketing prospectus shows.

“It’s geared toward a higher-end client and a nice complement to a high-end condo project,” said Boris Mannsfeld, the developer of the project, who lives in Belize.

Mr. Mannsfeld has formed a new company, International Wellness Resorts, to develop “wellness centers” with resorts. “People are seeking these kinds of state-of-the-art treatments,” said Mr. Mannsfeld, who worked in real estate in Colorado before starting the Belize project in 2006.

Many of the planned medical facilities are designed to market treatments that have not been approved for use in other countries.

“Clinical trials in the U.S. are prohibitively expensive,” said Russ Allen, the chief executive of Empowered Medical, a New York marketing agency.

His company is helping to promote a clinic that offers an alternative cancer treatment in conjunction with Valle Escondido, a retirement development in the hills of Boquete, Panama. There, spa rooms are being converted into recovery rooms and construction of a standalone clinic is expected to begin in January.

“This is a very efficient way to do something like this,” Mr. Allen said.

In Nicaragua, Mr. Fleming hopes to form a partnership with a university or an established U.S.-based hospital to build his clinic in the Seaside Mariana project. It is planned for a parcel near the rear of the development, not far from the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and the hotel to be operated by the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.

He expects the clinic to attract the type of older buyers who plan to live in the development for extended periods, not just short-term visits. “There’s a huge demographic out there and we can’t afford to lose them,” Mr. Fleming said.

Research has emerged casting doubt on a popular new theory that multiple sclerosis is caused or worsened by blockages in the jugular veins.

In separate studies from Germany and Sweden, to be published Monday in the Annals of Neurology, researchers report they found no such trend of blockages in patients’ jugular veins, which carry blood away from the brain back to the heart. The theory, championed by an Italian vascular surgeon and some doctors in the U.S., has inspired thousands of MS patients to get tested and, in some cases, to get treatment such as the insertion of metal stents in jugular veins to keep them open.

Heather Tuck gets an ultrasound exam in Washington in March as part of research on the role of blood vessels in multiple sclerosis.

“Our results challenge the hypothesis that cerebral venous congestion plays a significant role in the [disease process] of MS,” wrote Florian Doepp, a neurologist at Humboldt University in Berlin, and colleagues. They did ultrasound and other imaging exams on 56 MS patients and 20 normal control-group patients. “Our results suggest the cerebral venous drainage in patients with MS is not restricted,” they wrote.

A smaller study from Umea University in Sweden looked at 21 MS patients and 20 healthy patients and concluded, “We found no differences regarding internal jugular venous outflow.”

MS is generally thought of as an autoimmune disease, meaning that a patient’s body attacks its own cells. Symptoms vary widely but often involve progressive weakness and pain and can include speech disorders and spasticity.

The theory about jugular-vein blockage originated from Paolo Zamboni of the University of Ferrara in Italy. Dr. Zamboni’s reports have spread rapidly among patients through the Internet, propelling thousands of MS patients to get examined or treated.

At Stanford University in California last year, a doctor treated 40 MS patients with balloon angioplasty or stents to open veins. Some patients reported symptom improvement. After one patient died and another underwent emergency surgery for a stent that floated into his heart, the university shut down the program but says it is considering further research.

Currently, a study at the State University of New York at Buffalo is examining 1,000 patients after about 10,000 sought to participate in the research.

Dr. Zamboni said he stands by his findings. He said he hasn’t read the Swedish report, but he questions some methodology in the German research. He said his own multiyear survey of 500 MS patients has found that 90% have vein blockage, compared with only 2% of 1,000 control-group patients who are healthy or have other neurological diseases.

The reports from Germany and Sweden won’t be the final word. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, along with its sister group in Canada, have funded more than $2.4 million in studies to evaluate the vein-blockage theory. However, these two reports from Europe have heightened the skepticism of some MS experts about vein-blockage underlying MS.

Stephen L. Hauser, editor-in-chief of Annals of Neurology and chief of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, said of the European research that “these two papers tried to replicate” Dr. Zamboni’s findings, and that “the original concept hasn’t been confirmed.” Dr. Hauser had complained to Stanford after his patient had to undergo emergency surgery there after a stent in a vein floated into his heart.

International Health Care Providers Inc. (IHP) announced today that Indiana Orthopedic Hospital has joined the company’s healthcare provider partnership team bringing cutting edge surgical options for Canadian knee or hip replacement surgery patients. 

IOH has implemented a specialized Canadian patient advocate program within their already impressive patient centric environment.  Services provided by IOH will enable patients to return to a more active lifestyle, quicker and in most cases, with less pain.  Because of advancements in medical technology, many of the surgeries performed at IOH can be completed on an outpatient basis, consisting of patient stays lasting 23 hours or less. 

In 2009, IOH was named a Summit Award Winner by Press Ganey Associates Inc. for sustaining the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years.  For 2010, IOH is rated in the top five percent in the nation for joint replacement; 5-Star rated for joint replacement, total knee replacement, total hip replacement, spine surgery and back and neck surgery (spinal fusion); ranked among the top five in Indiana for joint replacement and spine surgery; and the recipient of the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award.  For these reasons, coupled with IOH’s sincere passion for providing quality patient care, IHP embraces IOH as an excellent solution for Canadians confined to orthopaedic waiting lists.

IHP’s comprehensive research and integrated international patient program provides specialized concierge services, preferred pricing and immediate patient file review to ensure proper patient – specialist compatibility.   Canadian orthopaedic patients will have their pre & post treatment care arranged, travel arrangements secured, medical records transferred and the communication lines opened between their Canadian physician and the IOH surgeon.

Kelly Meloche, President of International Health Care Providers Inc. stated, “We are excited to have the proven excellence of Indiana Orthopedic Hospital as our stand-alone midwest US health care partner.  IOH’s direct focus on musculoskeletal care and complex surgical procedures including total joints and spines represent the answers to many Canadian Orthopaedic patients’ prayers.”

For more information contact:

Kelly Meloche, Windsor, Ont.  at 519-736-0189 or kelly[at]ihcproviders.com

Dr. T. Rand Collins, Duncan, B.C. at 250-732-6693 or drcollins[at]ihcproviders.com

Ms. Meloche is President and Founder of International Health Care Providers Inc. (IHP), a leading international medical travel company based in Windsor, Ontario with a branch office in British, Columbia. (www.ihcproviders.com)

Ms. Meloche created IHP to serve as a resource of choice for Canadians needing better options for their health care.  She dedicated years to establishing a framework built on ethics, compassion and commitment in order to ensure that each client of IHP would receive superior care in a family focused atmosphere.  IHP specializes in connecting Canadians to world class leaders in health care, technology and medical research outside of Canada.

IHP’s comprehensive research and integrated international patient program provides specialized concierge services, preferred pricing and immediate patient file review to ensure proper patient – specialist compatibility. The company has partnered with many of the most highly accredited medical institutions to provide immediate health care solutions for Canadians requiring medical and therapeutic procedures. Their professional team arranges pre & post treatment care, manages travel arrangements, supervise the transfer of medical records, and facilitate communications between health care providers, hospitals, and employer groups.

As the regarded expert in medical travel for Canadians, Ms. Meloche has spoken as the industry expert throughout Canada and the United States.  She has assisted in developing strategies for successful implementation of International Patient Programs as well as creating a business model that caters to the Canadian health care consumer. 

Steve Baker, President of International Wellness Resorts stated, “We are excited to have Kelly joining our business advisory board.  Her successful international experience along with her enthusiasm and creative ideas will be a great asset to our company and our growth.”

Baker added, “We look forward to adding dynamic leaders like Kelly to our business and medical advisory boards soon. Our professional team of trusted advisors is a key to our success; offering proven experience, sound judgment, objectivity and strong support for our company’s goals.”

International Wellness Resorts Inc. is being developed in beautiful Placencia, Belize.  Emphasizing its theme of ultimate personal wellness, the Wellness Center will offer a variety of proprietary pain management procedures as well as a full range of wellness, cosmetic and spa products and services.  These services will be complimented with luxurious resort accommodations for patients and guests during their stay.

Upon successfully attaining full scale operations in Placencia, Belize, International Wellness Resorts will replicate its business model at numerous resort locations across the globe to serve large population centers.  These locations will match the Belize center in maintaining world class wellness care with a resort experience.

For more information, contact:
Karl Dakin, Denver at (303) 916-8272 or Belize[at]karldakin.com
Steve Baker, Denver at (303) 854-8820 or steve[at]pushingwater.com
Boris Mannsfeld, Placencia, Belize at +(501) 610-0294 or bmannsfeld[at]yahoo.com
Dr. Shane Kraft, Calgary at (403) 605-1067 or shane[at]optimumwellnesscentres.com

While the use of PET/CT is not currently indicated for diagnosing breast cancer, it can make a difference in the following areas:

• PET/CT accurately stages axillary and mammary lymph node involvement. Axillary lymph node dissection is currently a routine part of breast surgery, since it is the only way doctors who don’t know about PET have of staging breast cancer.
• PET/CT may detect distant metastasis resulting in more accurate treatment.
• PET/CT is also used to evaluate the response to therapy. Treatment can be altered, if necessary, for better results. 

• PET/CT is also used when there is suspicion of recurrent disease. Finding recurrent cancer early prolongs lives and increases the chance of beating the disease.

(1)   Source: Clinical Positron Imaging Journal, the official Journal of the Academy of Molecular Imaging, Vol 3, Number 5, Sept-Oct 2000.

How does PET work?

PET (Positron Emission Tomography) is a non-invasive diagnostic imaging procedure that identifies abnormal glucose (sugar) metabolism. Since certain cancer cells metabolize glucose more than normal cells, which often occurs before changes in anatomy, PET may identify the presence of disease earlier than other anatomic imaging techniques. As a result, PET may offer important information to aid in more effective treatment.

Along with Breast Cancer, PET/CT is considered particularly effective include lung, head and neck, colorectal, esophageal, lymphoma, melanoma, cervical, brain as well as other less-frequently occurring cancers.