Medical tourism is travel for the purpose of getting medical, dental, or cosmetic treatment.  The term health tourism is similar, but health tourism includes travel for stress reduction, to visit spas, folk healing, and health-related purposes other than medical, dental, or cosmetic treatment. There are many aspects to medical tourism.

The Medical Tourism Research Center

The Medical Tourism Research Center focuses on consumers who travel from the United States to other countries for medical services -- the import side of medical tourism.  This is a phenomenon that has grown rapidly in the last few years.  There have always been foreign patients who come to the United States for the most recent medical techniques at the best American hospitals -- the export side of medical tourism.  There are a growing number of American patients who shop around for medical care within the United States -- intranational or domestic medical tourism.

(Last updated March 13, 2023)