{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "counting-patients",
 "type": "story",
 "names": {
  "name": "Counting patients",
  "aliases": [
   "how many people actually travel",
   "the volume numbers"
  ],
  "said": "Every destination has a number. No two of them count the same thing, and several say so on their own pages."
 },
 "region": [
  "global"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "kind": "essay"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Why the headline figures for how many people travel for treatment cannot be added, compared or trusted as counts of people. Twelve of the 52 country records on this site carry an inbound figure. They are assembled from a trade council's member returns, a compulsory ministry register, an emirate's press release, a border exit survey of stated purpose, a visa class, a minister's statement, one pilot zone, and a hospital association counting the patients it billed. Each is described here with the unit it actually uses.",
  "story": "Four different objects circulate under one word. A count of people who crossed a border in order to be treated. A count of episodes of care given to somebody holding a foreign passport. A count of arrivals recorded at a frontier under a stated purpose. And a count of registrations. The first is the thing readers assume; it is also the one almost nobody publishes.\n\nMalaysia's series is the clearest case of the drift. The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, set up inside the Ministry of Health in 2009, has published a traveller count ever since: 641,000 in 2011, 728,800 in 2012, 881,000 in 2013, 882,000 in 2014, 859,000 in 2015, 921,000 in 2016. For 2024 it reported 1.6 million healthcare travellers and 2.72 billion ringgit of revenue. *Inference —* the step from 921,000 to 1.6 million is steeper than any plausible growth in operating theatres, and the council publishes no definition of a healthcare traveller. A figure of that size in a country of about 34 million reads as foreign patients seen at member facilities — every check-up, every follow-up visit, every resident expatriate with a fever — rather than people who crossed a border for treatment. The revenue line is the one with a defensible denominator.\n\nSouth Korea does the hardest version and is worth setting out because it is the exception. Facilities that treat foreign patients must register under the Act on Supporting Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of International Patients, Act No. 13599 of 22 December 2015, and report; the Korea Health Industry Development Institute compiles the returns and the Ministry of Health and Welfare published the 2024 figures on 3 April 2025. The total is 1,170,467 patients from 202 countries, stated as unique patients excluding repeat visits, with 999,642 of them treated in Seoul, 82.0 per cent at clinics rather than hospitals, and dermatology and plastic surgery leading. *Inference —* a stated counting rule and a compulsory register put this in a different class of evidence from a market total. It is still not a count of journeys made for treatment, because the series is administrative: it grows when registration grows, and a 93 per cent rise in one year is a fact about how many facilities enrolled as well as about how many patients arrived. The fastest-growing origins that year were Taiwan, up 550.6 per cent, and Japan, up 135.0 per cent — two-hour flights to a dermatology clinic, not admissions.\n\nDubai publishes a number whose own composition gives it away. The Dubai Health Authority reported more than 691,000 health travellers in 2023 against 674,000 the year before, with AED 1.03 billion of direct spending, and broke the demand down as 29 per cent dentistry, 27 per cent dermatology and 13 per cent gynaecology. *Inference —* a total led by teeth and skin is a count of short outpatient contacts, and the release does not publish the rule separating a visiting patient from one of the emirate's own large resident foreign population. It is also one emirate, not the federation; health regulation in the UAE is emirate-level, and no federal equivalent exists.\n\nThe Philippines is the country whose own government wrote the problem down. The Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the state's policy research body, published Oscar Picazo's assessment in October 2013 and recorded that \"The exact size of the market (number of medical tourists) and its revenue potential remain unclear, however, due to the absence of an agreed-upon definition of medical tourism.\" Against the benchmark for a standardised database, the same note records: \"Very weak; absence of key data; hesitance of private sector to share sensitive data.\" Against coordination it counts 48 offices and agencies involved and no council or board. The country therefore publishes no national patient number, and this site carries none for it.\n\nTürkiye and India both count at the border, and the border counts trips. USHAŞ, the health ministry's international services company, puts 2025 at 1,398,580, attributing it to the national statistical institute, whose own footer calls the instrument a Departing Visitors Survey — an exit survey of stated purpose rather than a count of patients treated. Of that total, 250,401 were Turkish citizens resident abroad, which is a different journey from the one the number is usually cited to describe. India's Press Information Bureau records 507,244 foreign nationals arriving for medical treatment in 2025, about 5.5 per cent of 9.15 million foreign arrivals, counted by visa purpose: a patient who leaves and returns is two, and attendants travel on a separate visa class and are counted apart. Two of those three units — survey responses and visa stamps — are counts of crossings.\n\nSingapore ran both methods at once and they disagreed. The Ministry of Health told Parliament on 22 January 2009 that the tourism board's airport exit survey estimated about 348,000 medical travellers for 2007 against about 410,000 for 2006, and attached its own caveat: every hospital had reported higher admissions and patient-days in 2007 while the survey showed a 15 per cent fall, and the board was re-examining the method. No later official count was read for this record. *Inference —* that is the cleanest natural experiment in this file. One country, one year, two instruments, opposite directions, and the discrepancy was published rather than reconciled.\n\nThe rest of the file behaves the same way. Iran's 1.2 million for the year to March 2025 is a tourism minister's statement with no method attached. China's 410,000 is one pilot zone on Hainan, where the visitor is most likely domestic, and is not a national count of foreigners treated. Tunisia's 500,000 admissions plus more than two million outpatient episodes are episodes rather than people, given by a health ministry official to a news agency. Jordan's 230,000 for 2025 comes from the Private Hospitals Association, counts what its members billed, includes clinic episodes — the association itself says only a quarter were treated in hospitals — and was published by a body arguing for the sector it counts. *Inference —* none of these is dishonest reporting. Each is a real measurement of something, published by an institution that had a reason to measure it, and the distortion happens later, when a summary strips the unit off and adds the totals together.",
  "how": "What a reader can do with a volume figure depends entirely on three questions the publisher usually answers somewhere: what the unit is — people, episodes, arrivals, registrations; who collected it — a regulator with a statutory return, a trade body with member submissions, a statistics office with a survey, or a ministry at a press conference; and what the denominator is. Where a destination publishes revenue as well as headcount, the revenue is normally the firmer number, because money has an accounting trail and a patient does not. Where a destination publishes a facility-level count, that count belongs to the facility and this site carries it as the facility's own.",
  "today": "As of 17 September 2026 twelve of the 52 country records on this site carry an inbound figure, and every one of them states its unit and its collector in the record's metrics note. Forty carry none. Thailand, the destination most often named in this trade, carries no inbound count here at all: the figures in circulation come from market summaries whose method this project could not read, and the hospital-level counts on the facility pages are what the Thai records stand on instead."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "malaysia",
   "as": "The council series that runs from 641,000 to 1.6 million without publishing a definition.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "south-korea",
   "as": "The compulsory register, and the one national figure here with a stated counting rule.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "khidi",
   "as": "The institute that compiles the Korean returns and states the count excludes repeat visits.",
   "rel": "org"
  },
  {
   "to": "uae",
   "as": "The emirate figure whose own breakdown — 29 per cent dentistry, 27 per cent dermatology — says what it counts.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "philippines",
   "as": "The government research body that rated its own database very weak and published no total.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "turkiye",
   "as": "The border exit survey of stated purpose, 250,401 of it citizens resident abroad.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "india",
   "as": "Arrivals counted by visa purpose, so a patient who returns is two.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "singapore",
   "as": "The year an exit survey and the hospitals' own admissions moved in opposite directions.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "jordan",
   "as": "Counted by the hospitals that billed them, three quarters of it outpatient work.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "mhtc",
   "as": "The council whose membership list is a marketing roster rather than a register of who may operate.",
   "rel": "org"
  },
  {
   "to": "world-bank-tourism-arrivals",
   "as": "The arrivals series with no purpose field at all, which is why it cannot be used here.",
   "rel": "dataset"
  },
  {
   "to": "what-the-data-cannot-see",
   "as": "The same problem across every series this site draws a chart from.",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "PIDS Policy Note 2013-11 — medical travel in the Philippines",
   "url": "https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidspn1311.pdf"
  },
  {
   "label": "Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, foreign patient statistics 2024",
   "url": "https://www.mohw.go.kr/board.es?mid=a20401000000&bid=0032&act=view&list_no=1485207"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:mhtc-mymt-2026",
  "s:mhtc-wikipedia",
  "s:mohw-kr-foreign-patients-2024",
  "s:khidi-medicalkorea",
  "s:kr-act-13599",
  "s:dubai-media-office-health-2023",
  "s:pids-medical-tourism-2013",
  "s:ushas-saglik-turizmi-verileri",
  "s:pib-india-mvt-2026",
  "s:pib-medical-wellness-tourism-2026",
  "s:moh-sg-medical-travellers-2009",
  "s:tehran-times-health-travel-2025",
  "s:govcn-lecheng-2025",
  "s:afp-tunisia-2024",
  "s:agbi-jordan-2026",
  "s:wb-tourist-arrivals",
  "s:imtj-wikipedia",
  "s:mti-home"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "note": "every figure is the publisher's own, cited to it; the readings of what each figure counts are marked Inference inline"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "this project's three questions, drawn from the records it has written"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "counted over the destination records on disk on 17 September 2026"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-17",
 "blurb": "Why the headline figures for how many people travel for treatment cannot be added, compared or trusted as counts of people. Twelve of the 52 country records on this site carry an inbound figure.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "global",
   "name": "Everywhere",
   "note": "use for a node that belongs to no one country — a standard, a word, a risk"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "malaysia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Malaysia",
   "as": "The council series that runs from 641,000 to 1.6 million without publishing a definition.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "south-korea",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "South Korea",
   "as": "The compulsory register, and the one national figure here with a stated counting rule.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "khidi",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Korea Health Industry Development Institute",
   "as": "The institute that compiles the Korean returns and states the count excludes repeat visits.",
   "rel": "org"
  },
  {
   "to": "uae",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "United Arab Emirates",
   "as": "The emirate figure whose own breakdown — 29 per cent dentistry, 27 per cent dermatology — says what it counts.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "philippines",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Philippines",
   "as": "The government research body that rated its own database very weak and published no total.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "turkiye",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Türkiye",
   "as": "The border exit survey of stated purpose, 250,401 of it citizens resident abroad.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "india",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "India",
   "as": "Arrivals counted by visa purpose, so a patient who returns is two.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "singapore",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Singapore",
   "as": "The year an exit survey and the hospitals' own admissions moved in opposite directions.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "jordan",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Jordan",
   "as": "Counted by the hospitals that billed them, three quarters of it outpatient work.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "mhtc",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council",
   "as": "The council whose membership list is a marketing roster rather than a register of who may operate.",
   "rel": "org"
  },
  {
   "to": "world-bank-tourism-arrivals",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "International arrivals",
   "as": "The arrivals series with no purpose field at all, which is why it cannot be used here.",
   "rel": "dataset"
  },
  {
   "to": "what-the-data-cannot-see",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "What the data cannot see",
   "as": "The same problem across every series this site draws a chart from.",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:mhtc-mymt-2026",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council Launches MYMT 2026, Malaysia's First Medical Tourism Year",
   "publisher": "Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council",
   "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/malaysia-healthcare-travel-council-launches-mymt-2026-malaysias-first-medical-tourism-year-302513594.html",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "MHTC's own release, dated 25 July 2025, carrying its 2024 healthcare-traveller and revenue figures. The council's own site returned a server error on the date of access"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:mhtc-wikipedia",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Healthcare_Travel_Council",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "set up 2005, incorporated as an independent entity 2011, moved from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Finance in 2018, and the 2019 arrivals figure; mhtc.org.my returned HTTP 500 on this date"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:mohw-kr-foreign-patients-2024",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Korea Attracts 1.17 Million Foreign Patients in 2024",
   "publisher": "Ministry of Health and Welfare (Republic of Korea)",
   "url": "https://www.mohw.go.kr/board.es?mid=a20401000000&bid=0032&act=view&list_no=1485207",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "press release of 3 April 2025; the annual foreign-patient statistics are compiled for the ministry by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:khidi-medicalkorea",
   "kind": "org",
   "title": "About KHIDI — Medical Korea",
   "publisher": "Korea Health Industry Development Institute",
   "url": "http://www.medicalkorea.or.kr/en/aboutkhidi",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "government-affiliated institution under the Ministry of Health and Welfare; the registration system, registered hospitals and registered facilitators"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:kr-act-13599",
   "kind": "statute",
   "title": "Act on Supporting Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of International Patients (Act No. 13599, 22 December 2015)",
   "publisher": "Korea Legislation Research Institute, Korea Law Translation Center",
   "url": "https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_mobile/viewer.do?hseq=60070&type=part&key=36",
   "accessed": "2026-09-17",
   "note": "Article 6 registration conditions — specialists by department and malpractice cover for an institution; guaranty insurance, minimum capital and a domestic office for an agency. Article 7 bars transfer or lease of a certificate. Article 8 requires posting and foreign-language information on diagnosis, cost and dispute resolution. Unregistered operation: up to three years or 30 million won."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:dubai-media-office-health-2023",
   "kind": "gov",
   "title": "Dubai welcomes more than 691,000 international health travellers in 2023",
   "publisher": "Dubai Media Office, Government of Dubai",
   "url": "https://mediaoffice.ae/en/news/2024/august/19-08/dubai-welcomes-more-than-691k",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Dubai Health Authority figures released 19 August 2024; gives arrivals, spend, regional split and the leading specialties. The release does not publish the counting rule behind the headline number."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:pids-medical-tourism-2013",
   "kind": "paper",
   "title": "Health-enhancing holidays: challenges in expanding medical tourism in the Philippines",
   "publisher": "Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Policy Notes No. 2013-11",
   "url": "https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidspn1311.pdf",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Oscar F. Picazo, October 2013, ISSN 1656-5266"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:ushas-saglik-turizmi-verileri",
   "kind": "gov",
   "title": "Sağlık Turizmi Verileri (health tourism data by year)",
   "publisher": "USHAŞ — Uluslararası Sağlık Hizmetleri A.Ş., the Turkish Ministry of Health's international health services company",
   "url": "https://ushas.gov.tr/saglik-turizmi-verileri/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "USHAŞ publishes the series it attributes to TÜİK, the Turkish statistical institute: visitors and revenue by year — 2019 756,926 and USD 1.459bn; 2020 435,691; 2021 729,592; 2022 1,381,807; 2023 1,538,643; 2024 1,506,442; 2025 1,398,580 and USD 3,022,452 thousand; first half of 2026 563,327 and USD 1.580bn. The unit is a visitor arriving with a health purpose, not an operation."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:pib-india-mvt-2026",
   "kind": "gov",
   "title": "Medical and Wellness Tourism in India — PIB Backgrounder",
   "publisher": "Press Information Bureau, Government of India",
   "url": "https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2257447&reg=3&lang=1",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "posted 2 May 2026; gives 2025 arrivals in India for medical purpose in total and for the seven leading source countries"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:pib-medical-wellness-tourism-2026",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Medical and Wellness Tourism in India",
   "publisher": "Press Information Bureau, Government of India",
   "url": "https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2026/may/doc202652862301.pdf",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "backgrounder dated 2 May 2026; carries the 2025 medical-purpose arrival count, the top source countries, the NABH accreditation count and the visa categories"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:moh-sg-medical-travellers-2009",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Medical Travellers Update",
   "publisher": "Ministry of Health, Singapore",
   "url": "https://www.moh.gov.sg/newsroom/medical-travellers-update/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "written answer to a parliamentary question from Dr Lam Pin Min, 22 January 2009, giving the Singapore Tourism Board's airport exit-survey estimates and the ministry's own doubt about the method"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:tehran-times-health-travel-2025",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Iran sets target to attract two million medical tourists over five years",
   "publisher": "Tehran Times",
   "url": "https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/513984/Iran-sets-target-to-attract-two-million-medical-tourists-over",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "dated 7 June 2025, reporting tourism minister Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:govcn-lecheng-2025",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Hainan emerges as China's premier international medical tourism destination",
   "publisher": "Xinhua, on the State Council of the People's Republic of China website",
   "url": "https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202507/05/content_WS6868ce92c6d0868f4e8f3dc5.html",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "dated 5 July 2025; figures for the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:afp-tunisia-2024",
   "kind": "news",
   "title": "Dans une Tunisie en crise, le tourisme médical est en pleine santé",
   "publisher": "Agence France-Presse, carried by VOA Afrique",
   "url": "https://www.voaafrique.com/a/dans-une-tunisie-en-crise-le-tourisme-m%C3%A9dical-est-en-pleine-sant%C3%A9/7464645.html",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "published 31 January 2024; quotes Dr Nadia Fenina of the Tunisian Ministry of Health and gives patient counts, revenue and the ranking of source countries"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:agbi-jordan-2026",
   "kind": "news",
   "title": "Middle East drives Jordan's medical tourism earnings to $1bn",
   "publisher": "AGBI (Arabian Gulf Business Insight)",
   "url": "https://www.agbi.com/tourism/2026/06/middle-east-drives-jordans-medical-tourism-earnings-to-1bn/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "published 17 June 2026, reporting Fawzi Hammouri, president of the Private Hospitals Association, as carried by the Jordan Times"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wb-tourist-arrivals",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "International tourism, number of arrivals — indicator ST.INT.ARVL",
   "publisher": "World Bank Open Data",
   "url": "https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL",
   "license": "CC BY 4.0",
   "license_url": "https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by",
   "accessed": "2026-09-17",
   "note": "the long definition and its caveats read off https://api.worldbank.org/v2/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL?format=json, including the sentences on differing national collection methods and on arrivals not being people; source organisation UN Tourism, Yearbook and Compendium of Tourism Statistics"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:imtj-wikipedia",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "International Medical Travel Journal",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Medical_Travel_Journal",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "established 2007, UK trade publication, biweekly newsletter, Keith Pollard as editor in chief, annual Medical Travel Awards; imtj.com refused every fetch on this date"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:mti-home",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "The Medical Tourism Index 2020-21",
   "publisher": "International Healthcare Research Center",
   "url": "https://www.medicaltourism.com/mti/home",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "authorship, the three editions and their destination counts, the three dimensions and 41 criteria, and the survey of 3,030 Americans"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "every figure is the publisher's own, cited to it; the readings of what each figure counts are marked Inference inline"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "inference",
   "note": "this project's three questions, drawn from the records it has written"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "inference",
   "note": "counted over the destination records on disk on 17 September 2026"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "argentina",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Argentina",
   "as": "Why a procedure count is not a patient count, here as everywhere.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "belgium",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Belgium",
   "as": "A country that treats its neighbours and cannot say how many.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "brazil",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Brazil",
   "as": "Why a procedure count and a patient count are different animals.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "china",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "China",
   "as": "How a zone's visitor count becomes a national destination claim.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "croatia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Croatia",
   "as": "Why a trade crossing a land border by car leaves almost no countable trace.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "germany",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Germany",
   "as": "Why the largest cross-border number in Europe is not a count of journeys.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "india",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "India",
   "as": "Why an arrivals count and a market estimate are not the same number.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "iran",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Iran",
   "as": "A national total announced by a minister, with no series behind it.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "ireland",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Ireland",
   "as": "A country whose best-counted flow crosses a sea and whose largest may cross a field.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "jordan",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Jordan",
   "as": "Why a trade body's count of its own members' patients is read slowly here.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "malaysia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Malaysia",
   "as": "Why a 1.6 million figure with no published definition is a marketing number.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "nigeria",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Nigeria",
   "as": "The billion-dollar figure with no series behind it is this page's whole argument.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "philippines",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Philippines",
   "as": "A government research body writing down why it cannot give a number.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "saudi-arabia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Saudi Arabia",
   "as": "Why this page carries an outbound number and refuses an inbound one.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "singapore",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Singapore",
   "as": "The health ministry's own doubt about an exit survey, stated in 2009.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "south-africa",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "South Africa",
   "as": "Why a share of arrivals who named a purpose is not a count of operations.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "south-korea",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "South Korea",
   "as": "Why a registration series and a patient count are not the same thing.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "thailand",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Thailand",
   "as": "Why the headline patient numbers for this country should be read slowly.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "tunisia",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Tunisia",
   "as": "Why half a million admissions and two million outpatient episodes are not half a million people.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "turkiye",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Türkiye",
   "as": "Why a figure of 1.4 million visitors is not 1.4 million operations.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "uae",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "United Arab Emirates",
   "as": "Why a figure of 691,000 needs its counting rule before it can be read.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "united-states",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "United States",
   "as": "Why 'millions a year' is a sentence and not a measurement.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "vietnam",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Vietnam",
   "as": "Why an unattributed 300,000 does not become a fact by being reprinted.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "amman",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Amman",
   "as": "Why two-decade-old arrival figures keep getting repeated as current.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "barcelona",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Barcelona",
   "as": "Why a national cycle count is not a count of people who travelled.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "chennai",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Chennai",
   "as": "Why the daily arrival figures quoted for this city disagree with each other.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "havana",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Havana",
   "as": "A number published by the ministry that owns the hospitals and sells the packages is a particular kind of number.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "kuala-lumpur",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Kuala Lumpur",
   "as": "Why a count of foreign passports in a hospital is not a count of medical travellers.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "mumbai",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Mumbai",
   "as": "Why a million footfalls is not a million patients.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "penang",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Penang",
   "as": "Why a foreign passport in a hospital register is not a medical traveller.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "seoul",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Seoul",
   "as": "Why a clinic registration count is not a headcount of travellers.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "sopron",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Sopron",
   "as": "Why this town's clinic count is a reputation rather than a census.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "tel-aviv",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Tel Aviv",
   "as": "Why a fifteen-year-old newspaper figure is still the count in circulation.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "tunis",
   "type": "hub",
   "name": "Tunis",
   "as": "Why a ranking keeps standing in for a count here.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "albert-einstein-sao-paulo",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein",
   "as": "A hospital cited everywhere in this field that publishes no count of anything.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "american-hospital-dubai",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "American Hospital Dubai",
   "as": "Dubai counted 691,000 international health travellers in 2023, and this hospital counts none of its own in public.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "asan-medical-center",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Asan Medical Center",
   "as": "11,377 a day, 654,536 a year and 19,482 from abroad are three counters measuring three different things.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "king-hussein-cancer-center",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "King Hussein Cancer Center",
   "as": "7,000 new patients, 14,000 admissions and 250,000 outpatient visits are three different numbers about the same year.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "medicana",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Medicana Health Group",
   "as": "5.5 million a year, across eighteen hospitals in three countries, domestic and foreign together, counting attendances.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "memorial-sisli",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Memorial Şişli Hospital",
   "as": "167 countries is the group's headline figure, and it counts countries because nobody publishes patients.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "mount-elizabeth",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Mount Elizabeth Hospital",
   "as": "About 30 per cent of one named hospital's patients from abroad is worth more than any national arrivals total.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "samsung-medical-center",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Samsung Medical Center",
   "as": "1.17 million foreign patients in Korea for 2024 counts registered episodes at every provider, from this hospital to a skin clinic.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "severance",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Severance Hospital",
   "as": "2.5 million outpatients and 840,000 inpatients, both counting attendances at one hospital in one system of five.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "sheba",
   "type": "facility",
   "name": "Sheba Medical Center",
   "as": "A million a year, and the word in the source is visits.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "deciding-whether",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "Deciding whether to go",
   "as": "Why the headline number of people who travel is not a count of people.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "the-visa",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "The visa",
   "as": "Why a patient admitted as a visitor is a patient nobody counted.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "india-e-medical-visa",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "India's e-Medical Visa",
   "as": "A named class makes a patient countable; most states issue none.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "korea-foreign-patient-registration",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "Korea's foreign patient attraction registration",
   "as": "What a registration-based count does and does not count.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "schengen-medical-visa",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "The Schengen visa, for treatment",
   "as": "A visitor visa with a hospital letter leaves no category to count.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "thai-medical-visa",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "Thailand's medical treatment visa",
   "as": "Why a patient on an endorsed visitor visa is a patient nobody counted.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "dha-dubai",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Dubai Health Authority",
   "as": "Why 691,000 cannot be read until somebody says what a one in it is.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "eu-national-contact-points",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "EU National Contact Points for cross-border healthcare",
   "as": "Where the administrative floor and the cash trade are set side by side.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "icmart",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies",
   "as": "A world total assembled from voluntary returns on unlike definitions.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "imtj",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "International Medical Travel Journal",
   "as": "Where its long argument with the industry's headline numbers is set out.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "isaps",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery",
   "as": "What a projection from 2,975 questionnaires can and cannot be asked to carry.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "ishrs",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery",
   "as": "A trade with no register, counted by asking the people who compete with it.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "khidi",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Korea Health Industry Development Institute",
   "as": "The one national count on this site whose counting rule is published.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "medical-tourism-association",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Medical Tourism Association",
   "as": "Where the industry's market-size figures are traced back to their sources.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "mhtc",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council",
   "as": "Where a national healthcare-traveller total is taken apart.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "oecd",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development",
   "as": "The residency and boundary problems this report names, one layer up.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "turkiye-health-services-directorate",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Türkiye General Directorate of Health Services",
   "as": "A register of who may treat, beside a border survey of who said they came for treatment.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "john-connell",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "John Connell",
   "as": "The problem his book named twenty years before the market reports learned to state it.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "josef-woodman",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Josef Woodman",
   "as": "Where the two-million figure in his publisher's release is taken apart.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "keith-pollard",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Keith Pollard",
   "as": "His paper's long argument with the industry's headline figures is the best-known part of his editing.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "covid-shutdown-2020",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "The 2020 shutdown",
   "as": "A hole in every series at once, and what charts do to cover it.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "dominican-republic-ntm-outbreak",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "The Dominican mycobacterial outbreaks, 2013–14 and 2017",
   "as": "Two outbreak counts with no denominator between them.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "imtj-summit",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "The IMTJ Medical Travel Summit and Awards",
   "as": "Where many of the field's circulating numbers are first said out loud.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "mexico-fungal-meningitis-2023",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "The Matamoros fungal meningitis outbreak, 2023",
   "as": "Twelve deaths with no denominator is the shape of almost every number in this field.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "ndm-1-2010",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "NDM-1, 2010",
   "as": "Seventeen travel histories carried a global argument for a decade.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "turkiye-hair-boom",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "Türkiye's hair transplant boom",
   "as": "A sector with its own regulation and no published count of its own operations.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "health-tourism",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Health tourism",
   "as": "Where the arithmetic of these categories is taken apart.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "medical-tourism",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Medical tourism",
   "as": "What a category this wide does to a national figure.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "wellness-travel",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Wellness travel",
   "as": "Where the arithmetic of these categories is taken apart.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "cdc-art-results",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "CDC assisted reproductive technology results",
   "as": "A mandatory national register that still cannot see a patient who left.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "hfea-results",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "HFEA fertility treatment results",
   "as": "A register that counts arrivals into one country and nothing leaving it.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "who-global-health-observatory",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "WHO Global Health Observatory",
   "as": "A repository of a thousand indicators with no field for a patient who travelled.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "world-bank-health-spending",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "Current health expenditure per person",
   "as": "The same problem one layer up: what a health number counts is rarely what a reader assumes.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "world-bank-tourism-arrivals",
   "type": "dataset",
   "name": "International arrivals",
   "as": "The story this series is the main exhibit in: what an arrivals figure will and will not carry.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "how-this-was-built",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "How this was built",
   "as": "Why a headline volume figure is never carried here without its unit and its collector.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "the-word-itself",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "The word itself",
   "as": "What happens downstream: the word chosen decides the category, and the category decides the count.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "what-the-data-cannot-see",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "What the data cannot see",
   "as": "The same problem one layer up, in the figures destinations publish about themselves.",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "from": "who-travels",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Who travels",
   "as": "What each of these figures actually counts, set out one instrument at a time.",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ]
}