medical

What Is Luxury Health Care? A Visit To Switzerland's Clinique La Prairie

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas, Lux Tips

Luxury health care? You don't hear the term very often. From a social perspective it is a bit of a tricky concept. To imply that some types of health care and medical treatments are 'excessive' and for the well-to-do only seems to contrast with the humanitarian concepts of treating the ill or injured. In fact, luxury heath care has been around for eons. The tonics a king would drinks, the ointments of an emperor. Things not necessarily meant to cure, but enhance or enliven.

Today luxury health care often falls under the category of "elective procedures." A rather tedious concept probably coined by insurance companies. It implies that you don't need it, or rather that the patient, versus the doctor is prescribing the treatment or procedure. We often look down upon things like cosmetic surgery publicly - although it is so much a common practice world wide. So back to the initial question - are such 'elective procedures' all that is encompassed under the umbrella of luxury health care? No. In fact luxury health care is probably what health care should be in an ideal world. Proper attention, good doctors, and the time taken to properly diagnose and treat, whatever the problem may be - whether it is necessary to sustain life, or elective to enhance it.

I travel to Switzerland and visit the Clinique La Prairie (CLP) to see if I can answer my question about luxury and health care. The Clinique is a rather famous (if you swing in the right circles) "wellness center" that has been around for about 80 years. Located right on Lake Geneva in Montreux Switzerland, CLP is nestled away in a small, but highly desirable location near France. The beginnings of the Clinique are rather retro sci-fi in concept. I will let CLP give you its full history, but a doctor had an interesting idea of injecting people with young organ cells collected from sheep. The theory was that these early organ cells would stimulate cellular rejuvenation and offer a series of "wellness" benefits meant to make you feel younger and stimulate the immune system. Sounds a bit mad scientist-ish, but people much more picky than I swear by it.

Tags: care, Clinique La Prairie, CLP, health, luxury, medical, review, swiss, switzerland

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Win Your Own Genome Map On eBay

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

The mysteries of your complete genome can be yours if you win an auction currently on eBay. There aren't too many people in the world who have paid Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Knome their $99,500 fee for the sequencing of their complete genome (the price was $350,000 when we first heard about this in 2007). But this week in honor of DNA Day last Friday, Knome and the non-profit X Prize Foundation are auctioning a whole genome sequencing package on eBay starting at $68,000. Proceeds will go to the X Prize Foundation which gives out cash incentives to encourage innovation.

The winner receives personal whole genome sequencing and comprehensive interpretation of your genome as well as Knome's proprietary genome browser software to navigate and explore your own genome and two years of Knome's update service. A digital copy of your whole genome sequence will be put on Knome's security encrypted GenomeKey. According to the eBay listing if you win you will also take part in a "private, in-person roundtable discussion held at the Harvard Club of Boston with Knome's team of world-leading geneticists, clinicians and bioinformaticians to review your sequence data, present the results of your analysis, discuss the role of genetic variation in the development of disease and highlight the latest research and discoveries." The auction also includes a private dinner with Professor George Church, Co-Founder of Knome, Inc., a visit to Knome's headquarters to review Knome's sequencing protocols and four nights of accommodations at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston. So far there are no bids on the auction.

Someday everyone will likely have access to their own genome and it will be a major part of disease prevention and detection but for now, the few on the forefront will have to pay the big bucks.

[via CNN]

Tags: health, human genome, HumanGenome, knome, medical

Pennsylvania Hospital Opens Luxury Section

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia is the latest healthcare facility to get a luxury inpatient area. The Pavilion at Pennsylvania Hospital opens on Tuesday offering eight tastefully decorated private rooms with gourmet meals, fine linens and concierge service. Patients will have access to DVD players, daily newspapers, an in-room safe and convertible furniture for family members. There is also a family business center with computers for visiting family members. Patients will pay an additional $400 a day. Funds raised by the program will help finance other non-income-generating hospital programs.

Gallery: The Pavilion at Pennsylvania Hospital:

Would You Pay More For A Luxury Hospital Room?
Yes	88 (54.7%)
No	26 (16.1%)
It would depend on the situation.	47 (29.2%)

Source

Tags: healthcare, hospital, medical, philadelphia

Nice Piggies: Medical Pedicures

by Anne Metz (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services, Spas

Corns, Calluses, Hammertoes, lend me your soles!

I come not to praise your bunions, but to bury them!

Or at least that's the thinking behind the medical pedicure -- a new trend in high-end beauty treatments. According to an article in the New York Times, medical pedicures refer to a treatment involving "extensive cleaning, sanding, buffing and shaping."

Unlike the pedicures most of us have come to love, which typically involve strip malls, special foot-bath chairs and conversations amongst pedicurists in languages you do not understand, the medical pedicure takes foot cosmetics to a whole new level.

The actual services involved in a medical pedicure can vary. If the service is provided by a medical spa, customers can expect to have their calluses, corns and ingrown toe-nails cut out with specialized tools. Some tend to be less involved and invasive -- offering customers a thorough cleaning and shaping that still trumps what you would get in your neighborhood nail parlor.

And what is the explanation for this trend? My guess is over-exposed feet.

With springtime shoes that are going from bare to hardly there, it's no surprise that women have started to feel self-conscious about the appearance of their feet. The beauty industry has tapped into a new lucrative market with this treatment, since the average medical pedicures range from $100-$300.

Source

Tags: bunions, calluses, corns, feet, medical, pedicures, spa, The New York Times, TheNewYorkTimes, toes