Medical Travel has been known by various other names, including: medical tourism, health care travel, health tourism, health care tourism, health trip, medical tour, medical vacation and global healthcare. It describes the practice of travelling to a foreign country to obtain health care.

Outsourcing of health care services is becoming very popular as millions of people seek healthcare outside their country, each year. This trend is bound to grow within the next decade as patients realise the benefits of medical travel. They should reap monetary savings as medical procedures cost only a fraction of the bill that they might face in their own countries. This enables them to recuperate in an less distracting exotic destination and depending on the medical procedure they had, they could be lounging by the pool or beachside, sightseeing or relaxing in a hospital room which looks more like a 5 star hotel room. With the savings made from the treatment one could bring their near and dear to a relaxing holiday as well. That could make the whole process much less intimidating to the patient.

Cost of medical care in the western world is spiralling upwards while medical facilities in other parts of the world keep improving . With properly accredited, overseas trained doctors and modern facilities, more than 50 countries have entered the field of medical travel as a national industry.  Medical travel also enable patients to escape epidemiological problems such as the dreaded super bugs in the western world. As most of these destinations have more registered nurses supporting doctors than in the west and with most institutions providing single rooms, cross infection rates are usually much less than in the developed countries. These countries can also provide additional local complementary therapies such as Ayurveda and spa treatment. Many Asian countries have English-speaking medical staff, so the miscommunication between the involved parties is a rare occurrence.