By Evan Falchuk
Guatemala is a developing country, with great natural beauty, hard-working people and many challenges. Most Americans look at places like Guatemala and see only the challenges. Some see opportunity.
I’ve just returned from Guatemala, where I met with our business partners, government officials, and others. And I can tell you a universal truth. People across the world want the best medical care they can get. They aren’t looking for the latest technologies and drugs and treatments – or, rather, they aren’t looking only for those things. No, what is most important to whoever I meet, no matter where they live, is that they are able to get the right diagnosis, and the right treatment.
It’s a harder thing to get in some places than in others. Americans don’t realize that one of our great exports is our health care. Not our system – but our know-how, education, medications, devices, techniques. In many ways, health care promises to be the economic engine of 21st century America. And getting access to it doesn’t necessarily mean getting on a plane and coming to the states. At Best Doctors this is what we do – bring the expertise of the world’s leading doctors to where – and when – it’s needed.
After a speech I gave in Guatemala one of the audience members came to me and said she thought something I said was very important. “Every person deserves the right diagnosis and treatment,” she said. It’s a simple concept that is much harder to make reality. But it should be the basis on which any health care program, health care provider – or health care system – must be built.
