"Medical tourism never went away, but the marketing and packaging of it did," he said. "It's been a top performer for many years."
   About two years ago, Mr. Aedo said, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce's Healthcare Group approached the bureau about helping them develop a sales and marketing plan.
   "They wanted to put a special emphasis on medical tourism, bringing all the hospitals in the area together again," he said. "We ended up pretty much taking over the marketing end."
   The bureau created a brochure in English and Spanish that's now bring translated into Portuguese, Mr. Aedo said, and created the website Miamihealthcare.org.
   The bureau also actively promotes medical tourism at targeted trade shows, he said, such as last year's World Medical Tourism Congress in Los Angeles. Plans are to do the same at this year's congress next month in Chicago.
   "Our hope is to bring that to Miami in the near future," he said. "For us, it's not only about marketing our world-class hospitals, but attracting more medical and pharmaceutical conferences to Miami. This is an area where our Conventions Sales Department are seeing a lot of success."
   Initial discussions with Miami International Airport are under way, Mr. Aedo said, on how to make the entry process for international patients with special needs as seamless as possible.
   Baptist Health South Florida has been actively involved in medical tourism for about 13 years, said Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer George Foyo.

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