Reza jamili
We sat down with two of the elite members of the Iranian medical tourism community. Dr. Vahid Wahabzadeh and Atefeh Zareh, both of whom are the founders “Safiran Salamat”, a medical tourism facilitator company.
They have done extensive operations in relation to infertility treatment, and since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, have worked to expand their activities to the international level. The company is now active in Turkey and Germany, where it offers medical tourism packages and has managed to secure cooperation deals with different parties from Ukraine to Dubai.
In a joint interview, we discussed the Iranian medical tourism strategies, as well as that of its rivals, and have discussed destination based advertising as a failing strategy. They point out that a diverse, generalized advertising strategy might be much more viable and beneficial to the patient and the host country.
What is the medical field that your company focuses on and why?
In Iran, we mainly operate surrounding IVF cycles and infertility treatment. We have better connections in this area and have managed to connect with several other important cities of the field. Other than that, we have a strong focus on Orthopedics.
Dermatology is another key point of our strategy. But in general, we tend to organize our experts into their own specialties and let each of them focus on their own area.
In Germany, our focus is oriented in another direction. We focus on diseases with rare and complex treatments such as autoimmune disorders, transplantations, and again, orthopedics. We mainly choose the treatments that are done easier in Europe compared to countries like Turkey.
Speaking of Turkey, Cosmetic, dermatology and hair transplantation are our main interests in this country. In Turkey we mostly promote treatments that can be don’t alongside a recreational, touristic travel plan, as opposed to vital and hard to treat diseases.
In other countries, we do not have an active presence. Therefore we need to take into account the needs and travel plans of the patient as well as the facilities of their destination and the capacities of our partners, before coming up with a plan.
Turkey is a special partner for us. In addition to the cosmetic cooperation between us, we also refer any of our patients who do not wish to visit Iran to Turkey. Sexual reassignment is another field that we are beginning to take interest in. As Turkey has more ease of access for this treatment compared to Iran, and it is also much cheaper compared to Germany.
What has been your recent international activities and with which countries do you have partnerships?
Our start-up has its operational core in Iran. But it also has partners in Europe. We are the only Iranian organization to do so and our main promotion is the offer of medical services in different cities of Europe.
Our extensive communication and facilitation efforts have resulted in ease of relationship, both with our partners in Europe and our patients. For this reason we have increased trust from our patients, Because we offer the rights of our patients to them according to EU laws. This allows the patients to file their complaints and seek their rights directly through us in case of any problems.
Apart from Iran, Turkey and Germany, we have recently begun operating in Italy and UAE as well. In near future, our main objectives are to offer our services in Ukraine and India as well. Although we are yet to sign any agreements.
What are your activities in other fields of treatment in foreign countries and what countries make up your target markets?
We mainly focus on online reception due to the international nature of our work. Naturally in other countries we have to deal much less with brokers, as their role and presences in countries like Turkey and Germany is much less felt compared to Iran.
This is because countries with an orderly economic structure have heavily regulated the presence of brokers. Tax evasion and charging unaccounted money are both serious financial crimes in Europe. Therefore most brokers are dissuaded from taking part in medical tourism.
This also affects our operations in target countries as we need to have increased order of work. Contrary to popular belief, working in EU is much harder than in Iran, and to an extent Turkey. This however causes a much more concrete and transparent course of action to be undertaken by companies to avoid any legal trouble.
What are the target countries of your business?
Naturally, the Gulf States are our primary targets in the market. In Europe, this is different as our principle target is Russia, followed to lesser extent by Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. There is a lot of work and we are only a start-up, but we try to actively operate on a small scale as to not sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. This way we can grow as an organization and secure a better future spot while our patients will also be satisfied.
What are the future prospects of “Safiran Salamat” as a Company?
As we operate internationally, naturally our work is not without error. Still this does not dissuade us as it is our passion and we think we are capable in it. Things have been good lately.
Our goal is to accompany the patient from their house to their destination, from any country to their destination. This is our principal idea and goal, and to that end we shall work tirelessly. And of course to our patients we make this promise, that even if we are not the best for them, we will try our best and give everything for them. We hope that the patients will place their trust in us and to give us their feedback through various online platforms.
Even if one of our packages is considered overpriced, and the customer does not consider it fair, we want them to inform us of their opinion so we can increase quality and work something out. The prices naturally are determined by quality. One thing that I can guarantee is that if we bring a patient to Germany, they can be rest assured that they will not be charged even one penny more than a German patient. Of course patients need to consider that a German citizen is supported by national insurance, but as far as the static prices of the treatments go, we will not charge them any more than a German citizen.