Medical tourism agencies are twenty years out of date

With sophisticated internet technology and the growing use of social media, a new US medical tourism service argues that outbound US travelers are turned off by having to use the sort of system that travel agencies used 20 years ago, and have mostly abandoned as unworkable. A new Chicago based start-up HuliHealth aims to enable people to find, contact, and book appointments with doctors anywhere in the world. There are many reasons people travel for medical care and they all stem from the fact that each country has specific healthcare market inefficiencies-costs, long waiting periods, lack of

With sophisticated internet technology and the growing use of social media, a new US medical tourism service argues that outbound US travelers are turned off by having to use the sort of system that travel agencies used 20 years ago, and have mostly abandoned as unworkable.

A new Chicago based start-up HuliHealth aims to enable people to find, contact, and book appointments with doctors anywhere in the world. There are many reasons people travel for medical care and they all stem from the fact that each country has specific healthcare market inefficiencies-costs, long waiting periods, lack of local expertise, or lack of technology.

Alejandro Vega, co-founder says,“HuliHealth aims to connect any person in the world to any doctor in the world. Believe it or not, the medical travel industry currently works just as the travel agency industry worked 15 to 20 years ago. In order to travel overseas, people must contact a medical tourism agency to set up their trip. These brokers exacerbate the inefficiencies and lack of transparency that currently exist in the doctor selection process. Our goal is to conceive the next generation of medical travel, where people from the U.S. and other countries will be able to use HuliHealth to find a doctor that fits their needs.”

HuliHealth’s web based system, which is still under development, will allow users to:
• Search an international list of doctors and dentists by specialty and/or procedure in order to find a subset of doctors/dentists who can meet their specific treatment needs.
• Evaluate each doctor based on patient reviews, credentials, and cost.
• Contact their selected doctors and discuss individual treatment options.
• Make an appointment for free with chosen doctor.
• Communicate for the full duration of the treatment process, from pre-procedure consultation to post-procedure follow-up care.

HuliHealth plans to generate revenue by receiving commission from doctors and related providers and so offer a free platform for users. The team of 7 are working to complete a prototype of the website and have been receiving guidance from Bernhard Kappe of Pathfinder, a Chicago-based software development firm. An initial beta test of the prototype with a few doctors is expected before the product is fully launched.

HuliHealth team is addressing compliance and transparency hurdles before these become an issue. It aims to change the way Americans find global healthcare providers. HuliHealth began in March 2011, and raised $100,000 in May 2011 from college classmates and industry experts. Although is still in development, launch is expected in the next few months.