Medical tourism, defined by Deloitte as the process of “leaving home” for treatments and care abroad or elsewhere domestically, is growing rapidly. The recent US healthcare reform debate has heightened awareness of global healthcare options that are affordable, high quality, accessible, and, in some instances, not available or approved in the US. These options are so attractive, that an estimated 750,000 US citizens traveled abroad for medical care in 2007 and the number is expected to double next year.

While medical tourism represents a small sliver of the total US healthcare bill, it will continue to expand and surgeons should be aware of this emerging industry for several reasons.

First, patients are inquiring about global healthcare options because they have high insurance co pays and deductibles and are looking for less expensive care. Second, more and more health insurance companies are offering medical tourism plans to their customers to save money. Consequently, the role of the specialist as the treating physician may morph into something else.

Surgeons may increasing be called on to deliver preoperative assessments, communicate with consultants overseas and follow the patient after surgery. Finally, the globalization of healthcare will challenge the existing models of care in the US and providers, including otolaryngologists, will need to adapt to thrive.

While medical tourism is growing, there are significant barriers to widespread adoption. These include, among others, establishing normalized quality of care measures, malpractice issues, health insurance coverage, continuity of care challenges, international health care information exchange, security and confidentiality, global infection disease control, and the challenge of developing trusted international referral relationships. New reimbursement models, for example, paying for otolaryngologists to communicate with foreign providers by email, telemedicine or other electronic medical records systems will be necessary to create an incentive to participate.

While these obstacles are daunting, I believe they will be rapidly overcome and medical tourism will continue to emerge as an attractive option for a small but significant part of the healthcare marketplace. Surgeons should educate themselves and prepare for the change.