With my finger poised above the Thunderbird SPAM button, I reread the email yet again, to be certain I understood what it was really saying …

… a new web site about medical tourism … what the flying fritter is “Medical Tourism”?

As I reread the brief email a third time, my finger stood down from its incipient nuke position. I could see that it was a self-promotion. Here’s what it said:

Hi

My name is Jimmy Atkinson and I’m writing to let you know that I’ve recently launched a Web site on medical tourism at http://medicaltourismguide.org/. I thought that you and your readers at All Blogged Up: A Moof’s Tale might especially be interested in reading our feature article explaining why we feel medical tourism is so popular — http://medicaltourismguide.org/12reasons/. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Jimmy Atkinson
Medical Tourism Guide
http://medicaltourismguide.org/

I clicked on his links, and took a peek. The site talks about the pros and cons of medical tourism, with a definite accent on the pros. There’s no actual information on the site … just a list a countries, a few with anecdotes, a bit of general information about each country. To actually get info, you have to contact them. They don’t even say if they arrange the trips, provide info about which country does what surgery, or really much of anything, from what I can see. For any details on just what sort of info they’ll provide, you have to sign up.

And as far as signing up is concerned, that’s where the danger! flag goes up for me. If you click on Privacy at the bottom of the page, you find the following statements:

We may send a cookie to your local machine and that cookie may be stored on your machine’s hard drive. We may use the information we obtain from the cookie to improve site usability and for marketing purposes. Our advertisers, sponsors, and partners may also send you cookies.

[...]

Use of Your Personal Data

Personal data submitted or collected on this Web site may be used for any and/or all of the purposes specified in this privacy policy or anywhere else on this Web site. We or our commercial partners may use your personal information to:

* administer this Web site and improve usability;
* send you general (non-marketing) commercial communications;
* send you e-mail notifications which you have specifically requested;
* send you marketing communications related to our business or the businesses of carefully selected third parties;
* provide third parties with statistical information about our users.

If you click on Disclaimers, this is what you find:

Effective July 12, 2007

Welcome to Medical Tourism Guide. By using this Web site, you agree to the following terms and conditions. Read them carefully each time you visit the site, as we reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time. Any changes made will be posted here. If you disagree with any of the terms and conditions below, please do not use this site. (emphasis mine)

Privacy

From our site visitors we collect such information including, but not limited to, referring URL, click behavior, IP address, time spent on site, and more. We may also track our visitors’ behaviors with the use of cookies. We may sell or share your information to third parties for marketing purposes. [...]

Whoa! They don’t tell you what kind of information they can provide unless you sign up, or write to them. If you do sign up, they can send you spam, their buddies can all send you spam, and there’s no “opt out” clause. Just visiting the site means that they may smack a cookie onto your hard drive, and then sell the information they get about your IP address – and more – to third parties for marketing purposes!

Not only that, they warn you to read their terms and conditions each time you visit their site, because they could change them at any time; they also tell you in a different place that “Personal data submitted or collected on this Web site may be used for any and/or all of the purposes specified in this privacy policy or anywhere else on this Web site” … so baby, you’d better read the whole blimey site each time you go! Although I don’t understand what on earth they could add to the terms they’ve already got … perhaps begin charging by the minute for browsing there?

Okay … before really exploring this fellow’s site, I thought it would be nice to write about Medical Tourism, and I replied and told him that I would blog about it, and “explore the subject as objectively as possible.” Had I done my research first, I might not have been quite as polite, and I would certainly have challenged him on some of his policies, if not his lack of “resources.”

But enough about the web site … I think you’ve got the picture, and I hope Mr. Atkinson does too, if he really wants to become “the #1 resource” on medical traveling. Besides, I think that a resource probably needs to have a body of information which is accessible to the clientele, otherwise, it’s not really a resource, it’s a “come on.”

Let’s move on and take a look at the idea of “Medical Tourism.” This isn’t something I’ve ever really ever thought about. Splenectomy Sabbatical, anyone? Or how about a nice peaceful Rhinoplasty Retreat?

It’s cheaper, it’s often faster, and you get to recuperate on a nice sandy beach! Sounds great!

However – there’s no continuity, and you have to provide for your own follow up care. I have a feeling that the “follow up care” might be a bit hard to come by …

I honestly wouldn’t think twice about heisting myself to India, to Vijay’s hospital, for surgery … but I’m not sure that I would be happy with trying to find someone to follow up with at home.

I’d like to know how many patients would be willing to outsource a major, non-elective surgery, if they thought it would save them several thousand dollars? I’m also wondering about trust issues – since the person doing the surgery may be someone you only see briefly. What would you do if things didn’t go as well as expected? And for those of you (like me!) who complain about hospitalists, this would be a whole order worse than that!

I’d also like to know what my physician friends think about having a patient take off for parts unknown for surgery. Do you have anything to say about the safety of a long trip so soon after a major operation? It would really jerk the heck of out continuity, too – what about medical records? Would they be hard to obtain? Would you be willing to take on a medical tourist’s follow up care?

Mr. Atkinson says that his feature article explains why he thinks that “medical tourism is so popular” … does anyone else think that medical tourism is “popular”?

I’d love to see some comments addressing the following questions:

Have you been a medical tourist?

Would you become a medical tourist?

I’m all ears (or eyeballs, in this case)! Let’s discuss medical tourism!

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work on this web site is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]

… Twice Shy …

This is going to be a quick post. I’m buried in school work right now. I have a many-page project due by this week end, which I’ve been working on from the moment I got up this morning, right on through a few minutes ago. I have an appointment I need to go to tomorrow in Dover, NH – which is a long ride for me, since I’m still up at camp. That will take up another one of my school days. I’m afraid that I’m not going to do a lot of blogging until that “final project” is done. But … just as soon as I upload it to my classroom … >;o)

There is something so important that I decided to stay up past my bedtime so that I could make a quick post about it. My regular readers will remember my recent problem with a blogger who called herself Naked Tomato. If you’ll remember, that clever young woman took me for a ride around the blogosphere … well, I learned a bit from that experience, and now I’m keeping my eyes peeled for other bloggers who, well – just don’t feel right, if you know what I mean.

In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a fellow who calls himself “Dr. David.” He’s been leaving the same cut and pasted comment on many of the blogs I follow. When he left one on Dr. Engel’s blog, I finally decided to take a look at this new “Dr. David” dude … and this is what I found …

His Google ads, which were at the top, side and bottom of his blog were ads for malpractice lawyers … I thought that was a bit odd, but that’s not what got me going …

I began to look over his blog posts, since I couldn’t find anything about a bio … each and every single post on that blog is cut and pasted directly from other people’s websites, blogs and forums. Each one. In one of the posts, he cut and pasted the source code directly from a Google search, and his search terms are still highlighted!

I checked out the better part of the posts he had up at the time, and traced the original posts – which he had not credited anywhere on his blog – fairly easily through a few simple Google searches.

A few places he “lifted” posts from, pictures and all, include: the Journey Through Breast Cancer blog, Fitness Health Articles.com, Gemzar.com, Anne Bennett – Breast Cancer: There is a way through your fears, another article came from Medical News Today … and I could simply go on and on … I don’t even have to be choosy, since there’s not a whit of original material on the entire blog! This is Bitacle all over again, but junior sized …

I left the following comment on what was the most recent post at the time:

2 questions:

1) Why is a physician carrying ads for malpractice lawyers?

2) Are you aware that taking other people’s material and posting it as your own without crediting the author is plagiarism?

I’m concerned that there’s not a single original article on this entire blog, and you’ve been getting my friends to blogroll you …

Could I please get you to address these questions?

Thank you.

I waited a day, and went to take a look at his reply … he had deleted the comment. As you can see if you follow the link to the comment, my name (Moof) is still there, and it’s linked to my email address. He could have emailed an answer if he was embarrassed to reply in a comment … but he didn’t answer … he just deleted the evidence instead.

He also did a lot of work since he deleted that comment … he’s added several posts since yesterday, and he’s begun to put the links to the article he’s “borrowing” in the title. The lawyers have vanished from his Google ads too. He’s even added an email address – which doesn’t work.

I’m comfortable enough with my surmise to blog about it … because I see so many of my friends in his blogroll, and I know that he’s gone to your blogs, saying he’s a doc, and trying to get a link from you. I personally don’t believe him … and I don’t know what he’s up to, but I don’t feel that it would be right to be silent. Being forgiving and tolerant should never be equated with being stupid or weak. If I see this sort of thing, I will say something about it.

You’re welcome to blogroll him if you’d like … but if you’re fussy about who you link to, you may want to go over there and take a gander at his blog for yourself …

Anonymous bloggers are one thing … false bloggers another. It seems as if the latter have been being exposed with increasing frequency. Sincerity is like smarts … if you’ve got it, it shows … and if you don’t … that shows too …