Medical Tour

Many consider the German health care system as one of the best in Europe and around the world. German hospitals have been a primary health travel destination in Europe for hundreds of years and continue to lead the industry today.

Patients from Eastern European countries such as Russia, Romania and Bulgaria, who have the resources to pay for high quality medical services, usually seek medical care abroad and Germany is a primary choice.

Medical travelers from Great Britain and the United States are attracted to Germany's hospitals mainly because of the high level of medical care and technical advances offered by the German healthcare system. Coming to Germany as a medical tourist also enables the Western medical travelers to reduce the waiting times which are common in the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland.

Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care. It also refers pejoratively to the practice of healthcare providers travelling internationally to deliver healthcare.[1][2]

Services typically sought by travelers include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available.

Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry.[3] However, accreditation and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists.

In the context of global health, "medical tourism" is a pejorative because during such trips health care providers often practice outside of their areas of expertise or hold different (i.e., lower) standards of care.[4][5] Greater numbers than ever before of student volunteers, health professions trainees, and researchers from resource-rich countries are working temporarily and anticipating future work in resource-starved areas.[5][6] This emphasizes the importance of understanding this other definition.