Founder, Healing Tourist
Chida Khatua is the founder of Healing Tourist, a medical second-opinion and treatment-facilitation platform built on a "Second Opinion Before Travel" approach. He writes on patient safety, conflicts of interest and independence in cross-border healthcare. Healing Tourist publishes a "Don't-Travel Rate" — the share of independently reviewed cases in which specialists advise that international travel is not necessary.
India's medical arrivals fell in 2025 and two-thirds came from one neighbour. Scaling twentyfold means winning patients who have choices — and they buy confidence, not discounts.
When medical advice and the business of arranging treatment are financially connected, who gets paid for telling a patient not to travel? The case for independent second opinions.
As patients cross borders for cancer, cardiac and complex care, travel coordination is no longer enough. Patients need clinical decision support before they leave and continuity after they return.
US health-benefit costs are set to rise the most since 2003, and employers plan to pass it on. That changes who counts as a price-sensitive patient — before the safety infrastructure exists.
The industry measures how many patients travel and how much they save. A patient-first industry would measure how many people were helped to make the right decision — even when that meant not travelling.
The CDC documented what happens when care ends at the airport. The EU legislated the infrastructure to prevent it — and left a door open for third countries. The industry hasn't walked through it.
The CDC reviewed a decade of its own consultations and called for stronger surveillance. Until it exists, the only protection is upstream: an independent answer to whether the procedure is warranted at all.