[Advertising promoting self-referral in Cairo and in Los Angeles]

After being a long-time resident of Cairo (Egypt) and then Los Angeles (California), the author noticed some unexpected similarities between the two cities, especially when compared to the Netherlands. In the medical field most of these similarities are related to the privatisation within the health-care system. This gives rise to a high degree of self-referral by patients and, consequently, encourages health-care providers to advertise in a sometimes aggressive manner, for example for specific hospitals, doctors, blood pressure measurement in the corner of a supermarket and even for a CT body scan.