Medical tourism has been gaining an important place in the globalized healthcare market. The objectives of this research are to discover the possible methods in attracting medical tourists to Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals in Saudi Arabia and to measure the usefulness of marketing mix on Saudi Arabian Medical tourism. The Non probability purposive sampling technique was used in the study with 180 valid data samples are considered for final analysis resulting with 87.37% response rate. The respondents consisted of the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators from three JCI accredited hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The answers were cautiously caught and implied, with SPSS 21.0 statistical platform for the study. The data reliability is checked using Cronbach's alpha, which is highly reliable at 0.84. The probable approaches in attracting medical tourists were rated as first and second, respectively, for the characteristics measured in choosing a treatment of patients (11.74%) and Prerequisites thought of the patients before coming to host countries for treatment (11.68%). The regression and correlation analysis were conducted to analyze correlations between the marketing mix variables for which the result is p<0.05 and there is a positive correlation between the variables except place -price, promotion -place, promotion -price. The study concluded that marketing mix plays an important role in attracting medical tourists to the KSA and make one of the most desirable destinations for world medical tourism.

Background: The pandemic has imposed a prodigious limitation on surgical training and has disrupted hospital procedures, hindering continuing medical training. We have established an online classroom platform at our institute to pursue medical education, which has been a new experience for our residents and consultants.Method: Across-sectional survey was conducted in the department of general surgery to know the perception of surgical consultants/registrars and junior residents regarding online classes and conventional teaching methods. Survey was conducted online, wherein questionnaires related to online teaching were circulated to resident surgeons and consultants/registrars.Results: A total of 91 surgery residents and 26 surgical supervisors consisting of faculty members and registrars completed the survey. Junior residents provided encouraging feedback and supported online education in the COVID-19 period; they felt that courses were well discussed, except clinical case presentation. A total of 84.6% of surgery residents and all the surgical supervisors felt that lack of a functional operating theatre impeded their training. Majority of surgical supervisors (66%) were moderately satisfied by the quality of online training, whereas junior residents (79%) were very to extremely satisfied and most (83%) approved online classes in future. Majority of junior residents (90%) found the virtual platform very easy to use, opposite to surgery supervisors.Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that online education is a feasible way to train surgical residents. However, since surgical specialties depend heavily on practical experience, it is very important to implement new ways of acquiring practical skills.