Mayo Clinic promoting domestic medical tourism to Jacksonville

Mayo Clinic targeting medical tourists for cancer care, organ transplants and stem cell treatment.

Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida has been well known for many years for treating medical tourists from across the USA and many overseas countries.

Under Gianrico Farrugia the Mayo Clinic has increased numbers and added a marketing impetus to make Jacksonville a destination for medical tourism.

The latest annual figures show that apart from the large numbers of locals it gets 20,000 patients from other parts of Florida plus 20,000 patients from outside the state within the US.

The latest key target market is the 38 million people who live within a one-hour flight range of Jacksonville. As well as existing specialities it is expanding into other cutting-edge areas to attract more patients for treatment.

It already offers organ transplants and in 2016 a new lung restoration centre will increase the capacity of viable lungs it can store and use for on-site transplants as well as ship out to other medical facilities across the country.

On regenerative medicine it is increasing its focus on stem cell-based therapies, with an emphasis on ensuring the quality and effectiveness of those treatments.

The cancer centre is investing in more aggressive methods of targeting cancer cells, including nanomedicine, immunotherapy. In 2016, Mayo will begin testing a breast cancer vaccine that it has developed with its partner, Jacksonville-based TapImmune.