The medical tourism category has shown impressive growth over the last 5 years and is forecast to continue the pace as inflationary and capacity challenges in western economies drive demand for healthcare services abroad. While medical travelers embrace foreign marketplaces, challenges exist as planning these types of trips can be complex and stressful. Navigating foreign healthcare systems and coordinating travel arrangements can be a daunting task while keeping up to date on pre and post procedure medical needs can add another layer of stress to the process. As smartphone usage during travel explodes, their functionality and capabilities can bring real world conveniences and benefits to medical travelers and simplify the entire experience. Keeping organized and staying connected to resources is now a reality in healthcare tourism as technology eases the stresses usually associated with medical and wellness travel.
Mobile Tech Simplifies the Process
medTOUR+assist is a new mobile application from TTS that addresses the challenges related to medical and wellness travel planning and fulfillment. medTOUR+assist maximizes the capabilities of smartphone devices through a user friendly interface. Key functions of the medTOUR+assist app are:
- Define and track all trip details such as transportation and accommodations
- Build and manage pre and post trip healthcare checklists and reminders
- Organize and set reminders for appointments and related events
- Access local healthcare resources and medical facility navigation
- Store relevant travel and medical documentation for easy access and viewing
With the aim of simplifying a complex process, the medTOUR+assist app delivers user-friendly functionality that keeps travel users organized and confident in their upcoming healthcare journey.
Once Touch AI Assistance On The Go
AI technology has proved practical in the travel industry and TTS’s own WALT technology carries over to the medTOUR+assist platform, providing extended functionality and assistance to medical travelers. WALT is a user facing AI chatbot that works within the RAG framework. By accessing static documents as well as internet scraping functionality, WALT can respond to any type of question related to the individual’s own medical trip. Access to WALT’s assistance is only one-touch away within the medTOUR+assist app and he can help with frequent requests like:
- Providing or resourcing local navigation to needed facilities
- Summarize trip events past and present
- Read pre and post checklists and set reminders
- Access local healthcare resources and regulations
- Make local recommendations for non-medical parts of the trip
WALT aims to add an extra layer of confidence when navigation foreign healthcare systems by providing real time assistance while on the go.
Focusing on UI / UX
In the latest design renditions of the medTOUR+assist app, UI and UX are top priorities in an effort to elevate the medical traveler’s experience and engagement with the app. Dark modes, brighter colors and larger interface functions such as buttons, make the medTOUR+assist app more user friendly and easier to engage with. Adding AI and WALT functionality increases benefits and conveniences for medical travelers from the app. Cleaner design geared towards faster response time creates a better experience for users and aids in alleviating those stresses and complexities associated with medical and wellness travel planning. A desktop companion app is in development, increasing accessibility to the app and creating another convenient method to set up medical trips and input important details. Design language and functionality focusing on the user elevates medical travel, one trip at a time.
Online Evaluation Now Available
As the medTOUR+assist platform rolls toward deployment, a limited function online evaluation is now available for real world device testing. The new and overhauled design is geared specifically for smartphone readability and can be tested on any iOS or Android device. While limited in function, the evaluation offers an excellent viewport on the current design schema and actual usability on devices. After online evaluation and testing, the next phase for medTOUR+assist is assembling the JavaScript stack for production testing and further improvements. Next phase deployment is slated for late Q3 / 2026. Visit the Evaluation Portal to try out the medTOUR+assist platform: https://traveltechnologysolutions.net/EvalPortal/#mta
