Ascendancy of the Health Tourism Marketplace

…and declining relevance of the Destination

putting the associated technologies into a "nutshell"

…with due attribution to Alex Letsas and his Immersion Den

Internet Century Health Tourism embraces new emerging technologies - and trends – which means the student and practitioner of the “subject” will encounter a bewildering collection of “terms”.

Thankfully, Alex Letsas (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/alexlets/) built what he refers to as an “organized knowledge hub” named the Immersion Den (now used weekly by thousands of people – me included).

The purpose of the Immersion Den is to put things in a nutshell and help us understand the “zeitgeist” of an evolving space with enormous potential.

See: https://immersionden.xyz/.

getting rid of the Bed of Procrustes

…freedom form Artificial Barriers and Constraints

Advent of the Metaverse and technologies such as crypto, blockchain, web3 and defi etc. have demonstrated the declining relevance of “destinations” (defined and delimited by borders) and ascendancy of the universal “Health Tourism Marketplace”.

We no longer need to “fracture” Health Tourism commerce / trade into “bits” (or even stretch it) – to make it fit into the confines of national borders (or even, Trading Blocs) – a practice I have compared to the bed of Procrustes “strategy”.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb and The Bed of Procrustes

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (someone I unashamedly revere) wrote the book titled The Bed of Procrustes.

Procrustes, a figure from Greek mythology, abducted travelers and stretched or chopped their bodies to fit the length of his bed.        

Internet Century Health Tourism (a.k.a. Contemporary Health Tourism – with both terms now, represented by ht8) has liberated us from artificial barriers and constraints.

Forget Destination Management Organizations (in one guise or another) and other “gate keepers”.

one Marketplace owned by its Stakeholders

…ht8

Marketplace

An actual or notional / nominal place where forces of demand and supply operate, and where buyers and sellers interact to trade.
        

As a consequence of the Transformation and Repurposing of Health Tourism (which gave rise to Internet Century Health Tourism) we now have an integrated "Health Tourism Economic Sector".

This fact alone, warrants and justifies the existence of a universal Marketplace – the ht8 Marketplace.

The ht8 Marketplace Platform is underpinned by Blockchain Technology – and is part of the Kwe Strategy (in which Sellers - Services Providers - are Nodes).

The existence of the ht8 Marketplace also makes it possible to dispense with the friction-causing middleperson (see below).

See also: ht8 – the Health Tourism Sector Masterbrand - understanding and capitalizing on its Versatility and Value (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ht8-health-tourism-sector-masterbrand-constantinides-m-d-ph-d-/).

dispensing with friction-causing intermediation

…the Internet should be the only “Middleperson”

The Internet, as part of its stated objectives, includes:

• the reduction of “friction” (or Friduction)
• “disintermediation” (i.e., dispensing with the Middleperson)

Indisputably, “intermediation” (the intervention of a “middleperson”) is associated with friction (a factor contributing to inefficiency).

Friction

“Friction”, in the context of economics, is everything that keeps markets from working “efficiently” – i.e., according to the textbook model of perfect competition.
        

But in pre-Internet times, intermediation was a necessary evil.

This was then.

Bill Gates (in his bestseller “The Road Ahead”) foresaw a world of “friction-free capitalism,” one in which the Internet itself would become the only intermediary we’d need – “the universal middleperson”.

Internet Century Health Tourism makes it possible to dispense with friction-causing intermediation (i.e., the intervention of the Middleperson – in the form of Agents and Proxies - Facilitators) – thanks to HEALTHwaft Strategy - which enables the Health Consumer to interact directly with the Services Provider.

More specifically, thanks to the HEALTHnab “app” (a component part of the HEALTHwaft Strategy), the Market (the Demand Side) connects directly with the Industry (the Demand Side).

uHTas - the universal “border-agnostic” addressing system

…for the border-agnostic Health-related Services Consumer

Internet Century Health Tourism introduced a “border-agnostic” addressing system - for the border-agnostic Health-related Services Consumer.

uHTas (currently in the process of being negotiated, adopted and implemented, in collaboration with www.what3words.com) is the universal Health Tourism addressing system which simplifies the process of locating and remembering the address of providers (the “consumer” only needs to know and remember – or write down - just 3 words).

uHTas addresses are unique, unlike street names which are often duplicated, and they are easier to communicate and share with others.

Compared to current street addressing systems, uHTas addresses are far more accurate, as they refer to a specific 3m x 3m area. As the entire what3words grid is fixed, the uHTas address for a particular location will never change, even if buildings or streets are redeveloped.