Having already worked in the travel sector when he took over his family business, expanding from rental car services to visas and ticketing for corporates, Mihir Vora saw the advent of new age tourism majors such as Makemytrip and knew he had to pivot to protect his business’s margins.

In 2013, he travelled to Kenya hoping to procure a five-star property’s marketing rights in India but instead found that hundreds of patients from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania travelled to India each year for medical procedures and surgeries and desperately needed help and support in a space that was disorganised and chaotic.

Vora decided to enter the medical tourism sector, becoming one of India’s first two NABH-accredited Medical Value Travel Facilitators. As a pioneer in the field, Vora says the biggest challenge was the mindset change from conventional hospitality where leisure and relaxation are core offerings. “Our work has a 10X added responsibility from other hospitality work—our clients are stressed, dealing with life and death questions,” Vora says.  

His first client was an 88-year-old Tanzanian man needing life-saving gastric surgery who travelled to Mumbai with his son, who would have faced tremendous language, cultural and logistical hurdles without Vora and his team.

“From that first case until today, our clients know that we will serve with affection, provide hand-holding all the way until after-care,” he says.

Over a decade, Magnus Medi has cared for 7,000 to 8,000 patients. The most common surgeries medical tourists visit India for are cardiology and oncology-related, according to Vora. His own clients largely visit hospitals in Bengaluru and Mumbai, though the company also provides services in Cochin, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.

Currently, Magnus provides patient care services in Bangladesh, Oman, Uganda, Kenya and East Africa, while growing in other countries.

Magnus Medi has trained partners who have a clear understanding about doctors, clinics, hospitals, procedures, average costs, etc even if they have never visited India. Patients’ reports are sent to the Magnus Medi staff, who respond with opinions from three or four different hospitals on the best treatment route and probable costs.

From these expert medical opinions to visa procedures, ticketing, hotel bookings, doctor appointments, cab bookings, airport pick-ups and all the way through being present with the patient’s family in the hospital during or after the procedure, the 30-member Magnus Medi handles everything.

The company’s subsidiary, SimplifyMVT, offers a SaaS platform for medical tourism stakeholders worldwide.

India is set to become a global leader in wellness tourism over the coming decade, says Vora. “Nobody will be able to beat us there.”