Helena Izotova
Israel is rightfully considered the world’s medical capital; about 200 clinics that suggest first-class treatment work here. Patients from Russia, Western Europe, and CIS countries come here for complex diagnostics, specialized treatment, surgery, and other medical service. And this is for a reason, as the quality of medical services in Israeli clinics corresponds to, and sometimes even exceeds, that of other developed countries, whereas prices are more democratic for the citizens of post-Soviet area. What is more, most doctors in Israel are fluent in Russian, thus releasing Russian-speaking citizens from inconveniences that frequently arise while undergoing medical treatment abroad.
What Israeli clinics are most popular among the citizens of CIS countries? This issue has been studied by the Analytics Team of “News of Medicine” Department of the “Market Leader”. Consultations have been provided by Vladimir Karaev – a well-known specialist in Israel, a leading anesthesiologist of the largest private hospital in the country.
Features of Medical Tourism in Israel: Why is this Country Chosen?
Health tourism is becoming a popular trend of modern society. More and more countries are getting enlisted as such that are ready to host tourists, wishing to get healthier. Israel is no exception:
- attraction to tourists, which is explained by territorial proximity of the country, absence of language difficulties with Israeli doctors, relatively low cost of a travel package;
- economic results, which signal about stable economic situation and positive investment climate of medical sphere;
- targeting on development of medicine. There may be found numerous clinics and, most important, qualified doctors, who may provide highest level medical services.
Medical tourism in Israel is a complex program, which includes examination, diagnostics and treatment, as well as solving the patients’ problems with accommodation, assistance to the medical institution, hotel, and support in case of everyday difficulties.
The strong aspect of Israeli medicine is the fact that doctors coming from American and European schools work here.
Rating of Israeli Top Medical Centers in Internet
The “Market Leader” rating is based on two objective criteria in Yandex search engine:
- assessment of word frequency for Yandex.Direct per month, calculated by wordstat.yandex.ru service;
- number of references about the clinic during the same period in Internet-media and electronic information agencies, calculated by Yandex.News (news.yandex.ru) aggregator:
The first place in October rating is occupied by Assuta Clinic – a medical complex in Tel-Aviv, which is considered to be one of most modern by the level of treatment and equipment medical center in the Middle East. Its main directions include: cardiology, general surgery, gynecology, and IVF.
The second position of popularity belongs to Sheba Clinic – a national hospital of Israel, which is located in the neighborhood of Tel-Hashomer and consists of three independent medical institutions: children’s hospital Safra, general clinical hospital, and rehabilitation clinic, which includes psychiatry and geriatrics units. Sheba currently includes 150 various medical clinics and units.
The third most popular clinic is Ichilov, which is one of the largest and most progressive medical institutions, which provide the full range of medical services and hold scientific research in the sphere of Israeli health service. The clinic admits patients from around the globe in order to provide all kinds of specialized and first medical aid.
Little popularity among Russians in the Internet has been gained by the following Israeli clinics:
- Hadassah Clinic,
- Rambam Clinic,
- Schneider Clinic,
- Soroka Clinic,
- Meir Clinic,
- Wolfson Clinic,
- Elisha Clinic,
- Rabin (Beilinson) Clinic,
- Herzliya Clinic,
- Barzilai Clinic,
- Carmel Clinic,
- Shaare Zedek Clinic,
- Laniado Clinic,
- Assaf Harofeh Clinic,
- Nahariya Clinic,
- Bnai - Zion Clinic,
- Hillel Yaffe Clinic.
PR of Israeli Clinics in Russian Internet
Popularity of Israeli clinics among Russians, defined by the number of queries in Yandex search engine, directly depends on how actively the MCs cooperate with media and publish news and other materials about their institution.
As far as we can see, only 10 out of 30 represented clinics have been mentioned in Russian Internet-media. The rest have been fully ignored by news and analytical web-sites.
Leaders by references in media according to queries in Yandex system have become the following clinics:
- the first place is occupied by Ichilov Clinic (11 references per month in Yandex.News aggregator);
- the second position – Schneider Clinic (10 references);
- the third line – Sheba Clinic (4 references per month).
Despite high profit, the main disadvantage of medical centers is the fact that they fail to effect serious PR-promotion in the Internet. In particular, many clinics have 0 references in media.
With such situation with PR, there may appear a new company at the market, which will manage to conquer the market if it grasps the point of PR.
Israeli Clinics are Most Interesting to Russians and Ukrainians
Popularity of every individual clinic directly depends on the total number of queries about Israeli clinics. Judging by the statistics of Yandex.Direct, this key phrase makes it possible to make conclusion on a rapid decline of Internet-users’ interest to the topic during this month.
According to the information of Yandex aggregator, Israeli medical centers in the Internet are most popular among Russian citizens. This is clearly seen from the table of search queries statistics in wordstat.yandex.ru in terms of 1 mille of the population:
The table shows the following:
- most interest to Israeli clinics is shown by Russians (0.04 query per mille);
- less frequently interest to Israeli clinics is shown by Ukrainians (0.01 query per mille in Yandex per month);
- Belarusians are even less interested in Israeli clinics in the internet than Ukrainians (0.009 query per mille).
What Internet Users Search for when Entering a Search Query “Israeli Clinics”?
As a rule, Internet search of Israeli clinics is followed by queries on concrete clinics and their features. The most wide spread queries in October have been the following ones:
- clinics in israel – 3 067 queries;
- israel clinics treatment – 721 query;
- clinic sheba israel – 451 queries;
- clinic assuta israel – 346 queries;
- israel clinic ichilov – 296 queries;
- israel clinic rambam – 178 queries.
The share of Yandex queries in the total number:
Efficiency Coefficient of Israeli Clinics’ PR in Internet
Efficiency of PR in the Internet is calculated by the number of queries in Yandex.Direct being divided by the number of references in Yandex.News system. Provided that there are enough publications about one clinic or another, one may make a conclusion about the quality of information spread via media, as well as define the dependence between the number of publications and the popularity of the clinic.
The table shows that in October only two of the represented Israeli clinics have gained the critical number of references, namely, over ten references in Internet-media per month. Therefore, the calculated coefficients are rather relative. Nevertheless, this month the highest coefficient of PR efficiency belongs to Ichilov and Schneider clinics.
All other clinics have appeared beyond the attention of Russian news and analytical Interner resources.
TOP Diseases, Searched by Russians to be Treated in Israel
Judging by Yandex service wordstat.yandex.ru, Russians are interested in such treatment in Israel as:
- Israel cancer treatment – 1 293 search queries in Yandex per month;
- treatment in Israel the Dead Sea – 584;
- Israel treatment psoriasis – 474 search queries in Yandex per month;
- joints treatment Israel – 215;
- treatment in Israel spine – 175;
- treatment hernia in Israel – 170 search queries in Yandex per month.
The first search query in Yandex search engine is the query “Israel cancer treatment”. Due to modern treatment of cancer, which includes the use of latest methods of diagnostics, over 80 percent of oncologic patients search for professionals in Israel.
How to Choose a Clinic for Curing Breast Cancer?
In Israel modern treatment of cancer includes the use of latest methods of diagnostics and treatment, which results in recovery of over 80 percent of oncologic patients. Cancer is the second most frequent disease (after cardiovascular diseases), which leads to lethal outcome. Early detection of a tumor is a guarantee of successful recovery. Oncology will not become a threat to life if one timely addresses to a specialized medical center, which effects personalized cancer treatment, including detailed diagnostics and further treatment.
Oncologic clinics in Israel answer the highest standards of world’s health service:
- application of advanced technology in the sphere of oncology for detection and high-quality treatment of tumors;
- high professionalism and qualification of doctors and all medical staff, who have vast work experience in oncology;
- individual and complex approach to treatment of certain kinds of cancer, which guarantees a variety of methods for diagnostics and treatment of oncologic diseases.
Helena Izotova
