Petrie-Flom Center faculty co-director and Bill of Health editor I. Glenn Cohen appeared on ABC’s Nightline last night, where he discussed the growing trend of medical tourism around the globe.
While it all sounds too good to be true, medical experts cautioned that there are serious concerns about “medical tourism” and having procedures done overseas. Glenn Cohen, co-director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy at Harvard University, said there is a risk of complications after post-op and said there have been documented cases of people dying or developing infections after having surgeries in foreign countries.
“There have been reported cases of people bringing back multi-drug resistant organisms, for example, from India and Sweden,” Cohen said. “There are real problems if you have to sue for medical malpractice because the tort occurred abroad, and there could be real difficulties in translation or the quality of the documents you can bring back, which may make it more difficulty to get good follow-up care back in the U.S.”
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