The session ‘Medicine without Borders: New Opportunities for Medical Tourism’ is part of the business programme of the Healthy Life Area at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Russia has enormous potential for the development of medical tourism due to its patient-centred approach, the professional skills of medical workers, high-quality service, and the availability and effectiveness of advanced healthcare technologies. A partnership between business, government, and science offers new opportunities to export medical services and attract patients to Russia from other countries, particularly from the CIS and the Middle East. By 2030, the medical services market is expected to double in terms of the number of patients and triple in terms of financial indicators, provided they are actively promoted. In addition to the popularization of preventive and rehabilitation medicine in Russia, there has been a steady increase in the number of innovative medical centres that provide patients with a wide range of services, including both planned and high-tech medical care, as well as health and spa services. An optimistic forecast predicts that the implementation of innovative projects in medical tourism will increase the market size by 2.7 times in the coming years, which will bolster the position of Russian drugs on the international stage and facilitate the influx of patients from other countries.

“Quality, accessibility, and innovation all make Russia attractive for medical tourism in terms of domestic medicine. In Russia, tools are being actively introduced to identify pre-risks for the development of diseases, and rehabilitation programmes are widely offered. The quality of services in both public and private clinics should be particularly emphasized. The innovative projects that are being implemented in Russia also open up new opportunities for tourism,” said the session moderator, VTB Medicine CEO Sergey Nechayev.

Experts will discuss what specific areas of medical tourism will be most in demand among citizens of the CIS and the Middle East, what measures are needed to increase the flow of medical tourism to Russia, how innovative healthcare projects are influencing the development of medical tourism, the outlook for the development of health and spa tourism in Russia, and what kind of appeal the latest national innovative clinics have for patients from other countries.

The full programme of the Healthy Life Area at the SPIEF 2025 is available on the official website.