Don’t be surprised if your need for a hip replacement or prostrate surgery lands you on a plane to Thailand. The global economic downturn has meant that everyone is searching for the best deals, not only in real estate but also on cars, holidays and medical fees. Governments and health care insurers are feeling the pinch and are consistently looking overseas for more cost effective treatments.

The point man for carrying out President Barack Obama's health care law will be stepping down after Republicans succeeded in blocking his confirmation by the Senate, the White House announced Wednesday. Medicare chief Don Berwick, a Harvard professor widely respected for his ideas on how to improve the health care system, became the most prominent casualty of the political wars over a health care overhaul whose constitutionality will be now decided by the Supreme Court.

For patients paralyzed by spinal cord injuries, Geron Corp.'s stem cell research was the shining hope. The biotech firm showered scientists with millions of dollars to develop a treatment to reverse spinal damage. The therapy was the first treatment derived from embryonic stem cells to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for testing in humans.

It is estimated that almost 10% of all females in the UK over 65 have been told they have breast cancer and, since the risk of the disease increases with age, this rises to 31% in women aged 70 and over.Breast Cancer Care says that, in 2007, the five-year survival rate for women who had breast cancer symptoms, excluding those detected by screening, was 86% in women aged 40-49, but this fell to 62% in women aged 80 or older.

Sarah Best, 30, underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy to treat mouth cancer, which was diagnosed when she was four months pregnant with her first child. The mother-to-be was told the cancer would spread if she did not have radiotherapy.

Although China is promoted as a medical tourism destination, with the difficulty of getting visas and lack of destinations, the numbers going there are small so far. But the real interest is the quiet but hidden growth that now makes China one of the main suppliers of outbound medical tourists.

The heart's ability to pump blood improved after patients were injected with adult stem cells taken from their own hearts, according to a study led by Dr. Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville. A stem cell treatment for patients with heart failure significantly improved their heart function in a small but promising new study. In heart failure, the heart loses its ability to efficiently pump blood. It is most often caused by a heart attack, which destroys some of the muscle tissue essential to a normal heartbeat.

Maryam Musa (not real name) got married about seven years ago and is still yet to experience the joys of motherhood. Maryam laments that her days are either spent chasing after one fertility centre or visiting spiritual homes, all to no avail. Constantly taunted by her in laws especially her mother in law, Maryam says her hope has turned into despair, because she now feels like a visitor in her matrimonial home. Maryam says she and her husband cannot recount the funds they have spent in searching for a solution.

An idea in a desk drawer 43 years ago led to Cancun's transformation from an area depressed by a disappeared rope industry on the Yucatan Peninsula to the third largest tourist destination for people in the United States. Yucatan was producing 90 percent of the world's rope and burlap bags, until the invention of synthetics and nylon rope wiped out the industry and left the primarily Mayan workers without jobs. Servando Acuna Braun, president of Medical Travel Mexico, has rolled up his sleeves to help launch Cancun's next big adventure into the American market, building off the one-industry town of Cancun.

Riverson Corporation Sdn Bhd has broken ground for a mixed-use development in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah state and situated on the Borneo coast in one of Malaysia’s largest and fastest growing urban areas. The $187 million Riverson Walk will be located along the coastal highway on 5.5 acres in the city’s central business district and is expected to open in 2014, according to the Borneo Post on November 8. The 250-bed Gleneagles Kota Kinabalu Medical Center (a member of the Gleneagle brand) will anchor the project surrounded by hundreds of retail outlets, office suites, transportation facilities, and five-star hotel, as well as golf course and country club, hotels, commercial outlets, and residences.