Just a few years back, medical travel and tourism was the province of a small and select group of hospitals and medical facilities; and the United States was better known as a destination for international patients, not as a country from which patients went elsewhere for care.

Today, the infrastructure of medical travel and tourism is global. Consumers led the way and the medical and business communities have expanded to cater to the growing demand. In that context, BridgeHealth’s announcement of a global network of providers puts it at the leading edge of providing international care but patients in the U.S. shouldn’t be surprised. Providing for increased choice in destinations, facilities, surgeons, doctors and pricing is part of what medical travel *does*, as a phenomenon, as it grows.

– the moderator

DENVER - Responding to the growing demand among employers, health plans and other stakeholders for a comprehensive, “world-class” network of international healthcare centers of excellence, BridgeHealth International, Inc. (BridgeHealth) today unveiled its initial system of providers comprised of over 25 hospitals and 600 physicians, dentistsand health professionals in ten countries. With a focus on serving businesses and individuals for the delivery of international medical care, BridgeHealth developed its World-Class Provider Network™ to offer an extensive range of medical and dental procedures, a wide choice of hospitals and destinations, and options for accessing providers with experience, expertise and high standards of safety.

“The BridgeHealth network is the first-of-its kind in the industry, bringing to the marketplace a best-of-breed option for delivering high quality care and treatments to medical travelers,” says Victor Lazzaro, Jr., CEO of BridgeHealth. “Backed by decades of executive experience in healthcare delivery, BridgeHealth has assembled a network of breadth and depth, with a focus on promoting provider choice and offering a superior client experience. As the recognized leader and innovator in medical travel, we are committed to growing this international system while always maintaining the highest degrees of integrity and concern for quality.”

The BridgeHealth network represents the widest range of choices now available for medical travel, offering patients a vast array of options.

“Some Americans may choose to travel to exotic locations including Singapore or India while others may prefer to be closer to home and opt for Mexico or Panama,” continues Lazzaro. “We offer a broad menu of medical and dental procedures – meeting needs as varied as orthopedic procedures, cardiac surgeries, and bariatric operations. Our goal is to match patients with their location of choice, meet budget expectations, and arrange for the highest quality care available in a specific country. This is all made possible by assembling the most extensive network in the industry.”

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The Bridge is an information service and discussion forum intended as an authoritative source of news and opinion about medical travel and tourism. It is not intended as a promotional vehicle for medical travel companies, facilities or destination countries. It is, however, sponsored by BridgeHealth International, a medical tourism company based in Denver, Colorado, United States, and, transparently, depends on BridgeHealth experts for expert commentary, contacts and content generally.

From the BridgeHealth corporate site:

“Founded in 2007 and positioned as a leader in the medical tourism industry, BridgeHealth International (BHI) maintains a worldwide network of physicians and accredited hospitals, offering priority customer service, significant savings on high value medical procedures, and outcome-based measurement systems. BHI primarily serves health plans, insurance carriers, employers, third party administrators, and individuals accessing benefits via voluntary benefits plans, health card programs or Consumer Directed Health Care Plans (CDHP), as well as consumers seeking medical travel options.”

The founding editor of The Bridge is Jeff Schult. That’s me, and I hope it’s the last time I’ll be writing about myself hereabouts in the third person. Briefly, I’m the author of the medical travel guide, Beauty from Afar and have been involved in medical tourism and travel for the last four years as a patient, journalist, author, speaker and consultant. I’ve been a journalist for a long time and I also have years of experience running big consumer web sites. As editor of The Bridge, I’ll be responsible for deciding, on a daily basis, what is “Bridge Worthy.” I’ll comment on breaking news in medical tourism; solicit articles, comments and blog posts from medical professionals around the globe; and I’ll answer reader questions, or get answers from experts when necessary. One of my greatest assets as editor, of course, are the principals and staff of BridgeHealth International.

There are thousands of web sites and blogs devoted to medical travel and tourism. The vast majority of them exist to narrowly market medical travel services, or to sell advertising. Most of them tend to run out of things to say pretty quickly. The Bridge isn’t going to be like that. And we’ll point you to the other “good” sites as well.