What is Medical Travel?

Tourism – travel away from home, for leisure.

Medical Tourism – travel abroad, for leisure and medical treatment.

Medical Travel – travel abroad, with the main focus on receiving medical treatment.

Medical Tourism vs. Medical Travel

The term ‘medical tourism’ has become a catchall term to many patients, travel agents and health travel planners alike. But there is a difference between medical tourism and medical travel. Medical tourism combines medical treatments with sightseeing, with the focus fairly evenly split between the two. The medical procedures involved in medical tourism tend to be less complicated with shorter and easier recovery periods. For example, receiving a dental implant is one procedure which might leave the patient with some minor mouth discomfort for a day or two, but not usually enough to impede his/her ability to sightsee. Having cardiac bypass surgery, on the other hand, is major surgery, requiring more than a day of recovery and recuperation. A patient who’s just had cardiac bypass should not be walking around a city for hours on end, let alone trekking through the nearby countryside.

Another way of understanding the difference between medical tourism and medical travel is gained by looking at the patient’s reason for obtaining his/her surgery/treatment abroad. The medical traveler isn’t traveling abroad to tour or to have fun, but to receive life-saving or life-altering medical treatment that he/she cannot obtain or afford at home, or do so in a timely manner. The person who travels abroad for medical tourism can obtain the treatment at home, but prefers to have the treatment where he/she will pay a significantly lower price, allowing him/her to then apply the savings towards a vacation.

Understanding the distinction between medical tourism and medical travel is important when planning a medical trip abroad. Once you focus on your true goals for your trip, you’ll be able to plan your trip to maximize those goals.

Is your travel abroad Medical Tourism or Medical Travel?

Depending on the type of surgery, recovery period, and the amount of touring you plan to do (if any), you’ll be taking part of medical tourism, medical travel, or find yourself somewhere in between the two.

Typically, only patients who plan to have a minor procedure with a short recovery period sightsee while abroad (medical tourism). Most patients going abroad for major or complex surgery, on the other hand, avoid sightseeing and focus on their treatment (medical travel). Of course, there are no rules about what your time abroad must entail. Plan your medical tourism or medical travel according to what you want and need. And if you decide medical travel is your main focus, don’t feel as if you’re missing out on seeing or experiencing your new surroundings. You will still experience the foreign culture through your observations and interactions with the local people!

Consult your Physician

We suggest you discuss your plans (whatever they may be) with your doctors, both at home and abroad. Your physicians are in the best position to advise you about your recovery and any potential complications which could arise. With that information in hand, you will have a realistic idea of whether your journey should be one of medical tourism, medical travel, or even a combination of the two.

Medical Travel		Medical Tourism



1 Treatment Not Available at home, cost is not a factor Major Surgery Long Recovery No Touring	2 Costs is a main reason for going abroad Major Surgery Long Recovery No Touring	3 Procedure is less complex than major surgery Some Savings Short Recovery Half Medical/Half Travel	4 Minor Procedure Trading Cost Savings for Vacation Tour during recuperation period

Why Travel Abroad for Treatment?

Patients travel abroad for medical treatments which are:

1) Not available at home
2) Less expensive
3) Faster to obtain
4) Great Access to Medical Staff

You may be wondering how the treatments can be less expensive abroad, or even faster to obtain than in the U.S. While the U.S. has a lot of great doctors and institutions on the cutting edge of technology and research, the same is true in many other countries. In most of those countries, procedures are not as expensive as in the U.S. due to the structure of their medical and legal systems. The quality of treatment abroad is often the same as in the U.S. – sometimes even better. And don’t let a country’s economic status color your opinion of its medical facilities, talent or competencies. Take a country such as India. While India is often considered a third class country, it has world-class medical facilities and treatments which are on the forefront of medicine. India is recognized for its advancements in many areas, including medicine. India is responsible for developing new procedures, such as hip resurfacing, which is only now being introduced into the U.S. In addition, India’s doctors are among the best trained… you’ll find that some of the best and brightest doctors in major American hospitals are from India, many of whom return to India once they’ve finished their training. Once you begin researching facilities and doctors abroad, you'll probably find many who perform your procedure every day - with high rates of success.