China's medical tourism in the children's myopia correction package favored by parents, is the result of multiple factors, the core around the children's myopia in the context of the rigid demand for high incidence of myopia, the parents of professionalism and the pursuit of results, as well as the medical tourism model to provide differentiated services to carry out.
I、The reality of high incidence of myopia in children has created an urgent demand for correction
China has one of the highest rates of childhood myopia in the world. According to the National Health Commission, in 2022, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in China will reach 53.6% (of which over 80% will be high school students), and show a trend of “younger and higher” (myopia rate of 6-year-olds is about 14.3%, and the high myopia rate of 12-year-olds is nearly 10%). Myopia not only affects children's learning and life (e.g. visual fatigue, limited sports), but also may cause complications such as retinopathy and glaucoma, and even limit future career choices (e.g. pilots, soldiers, etc.). Parents generally have the cognition that myopia is irreversible but needs to be controlled by all means, and the demand for scientific correction programs is extremely urgent.
II 、the “professional + customized” attribute of medical tourism packages meets parents' expectations for “effective intervention”
Traditional myopia correction mostly relies on the conventional means of hospital outpatient services (such as prescription glasses and general visual training), but parents are often faced with the pain points of “uncertainty of the effect and fragmentation of the process”. By integrating resources, the medical tourism package provides differentiated services that better meet the needs of parents:
1. Technology integration: covering cutting-edge corrective methods
Packages usually integrate a variety of clinically proven myopia control technologies, for example:
- Optical correction: high oxygen permeable keratomileusis (OK lenses), out-of-focus frames/soft lenses (e.g. Star Controls, New Lexology); and
- Pharmacological interventions: low concentration atropine eye drops (to be used under medical supervision); and
- Behavioral interventions: personalized visual training (improving accommodation, assembling function), monitoring of eye habits (e.g., smart devices to record the length of time and distance of eye use).
- Combination of Chinese and Western medicine: some organizations add Chinese medicine auricular pressure points, eye acupoint massage and other auxiliary means (catering to parents' preference for “green therapy”).
The centralized provision of these techniques makes parents think that “one-stop solution” is more comprehensive than a single means.
2. Individualized plan: solving the “one-size-fits-all” pain point
The package emphasizes “precise examination + customized plan”. For example, through corneal topography, eye axis length (AL), curvature, adjusting power and other 20+ professional examinations (ordinary clinics may only do basic optometry), combined with the child's age, myopia growth rate, eye use scenarios (such as the length of online classes, outdoor activities), etc., to formulate a “one-person, one-policy”. Parents generally believe that this kind of “precision” can better control the development of myopia than the “assembly line” prescription.
3. Concentration of specialist resources: easing the difficulty in registering and seeing specialists
High-quality ophthalmologists (especially in the field of children's myopia prevention and control) are concentrated in tertiary hospitals in first-tier cities, making it difficult for ordinary parents to register and wait for a long time for medical consultation (some specialists need to wait for weeks or even months in advance for their numbers). Medical tourism packages often cooperate with well-known ophthalmology institutions (such as Ai Er, Huaxia, He's, etc.) or private specialized clinics to provide “one-on-one expert consultation” services, or even invite nationally renowned experts to participate in consultations, to satisfy parents' demand for “authoritative endorsement”.
III 、the “medical + tourism” model: reducing decision-making costs and enhancing the sense of experience
Different from traditional medical care, medical tourism reduces parents' decision-making threshold and execution pressure through “scenario-based services”:
1. One-stop service, saving time and energy
The package usually includes the whole process of “off-site medical treatment + accommodation + transportation”. For example, parents can take their children to a tourist city (e.g. Boao, Hainan, Kunming, Yunnan and other advanced medical tourism zones), stay in a partner hotel, and complete the checkup, correction, and re-examination, without having to make multiple trips. For dual-income families or parents from other places, this “hassle-free” mode is very attractive. 2.
2. Friendly environment to ease children's resistance
Children's fear of hospitals often leads to low cooperation (e.g. resistance to optometry and OK lenses). Medical tourism organizations often create “child-friendly” environments: brightly decorated, set up play areas, equipped with children's exclusive examination equipment (e.g., cartoon vision charts), and even arranging for counselors to guide children to cooperate with treatment. Parents believe that a good experience can improve compliance with correction and indirectly enhance the effect.
3. Added value: health management and knowledge empowerment
Packages are often accompanied by parent classes (e.g., popular science lectures on myopia prevention and control), parent-child outdoor activities (e.g., organizing hiking and biking to strengthen the knowledge of “outdoor activities to prevent myopia”), and even follow-up remote visits (uploading eye data via APP, and regular guidance from doctors). This “treatment + education” model makes parents feel that they are not only solving the current problem, but also learning long-term management, which is in line with their demand for “scientific parenting”.
IV、Summary
The popularity of China Medical Tourism's myopia correction packages for children is essentially a result of parents' strong demand for “efficient, professional, and hassle-free” myopia prevention and control solutions, and the precise match between the medical tourism model and the “technological integration + personalized service + experience optimization” provided by the medical tourism model. In the future, with the iteration of myopia prevention and control technology (e.g., new optical correction devices, genetic intervention exploration) and upgrading of service mode (e.g., AI-assisted personalized solutions), this market is expected to continue to grow, but we also need to be vigilant against excessive marketing, false propaganda and other issues, and we need to require parents to rationally choose the formal institutions with qualifications.