2018 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 50-54
Objective: Although Japan is gradually becoming a destination for medical tourism, the number of institutions offering comprehensive health check-ups for people from overseas seeking medical care is still small, due to concern over language and cultural differences. Here we report our first experience of providing comprehensive health check-ups (called “Ningen Dock” in Japanese) to visitors from overseas.
Methods: Between 2015 and 2017, 22 Chinese tourists (14 males and 8 females; mean age 49.2 years) underwent Ningen Dock at our institution. We evaluated the outcomes in four areas: communication, exam content, contractual matters, and effectiveness of measures against problems in examinations.
Results: Communication problems were minimized through the use of interpreters; however, slight problems did occur when the interpreter was simultaneously required for two different examinations. In the other three areas, there were no complaints or problems.
Conclusions: The Ningen Dock for foreign tourists was more successful than we had anticipated. Nevertheless, since many of the aspects of Ningen Dock are unique to Japanese medical culture, going forward, the focus should be on continuously adapting its approaches and models, in order to be positively evaluated by tourists from around the world.