Medigo: the Berlin-based startup sending patients abroad for surgery

Since 2014, Medigo has connected over 60,000 patients with doctors in 178 different countries for procedures ranging from brain surgery to tummy tucks

Medigo has secured over €10m (£8.96m) of investment (Medigo)

When he hit 146kg, Neil Adamson decided to do something about his weight. The 49-year-old chef from Newcastle was based in Qatar at the time and as an ex-pat, it would have been difficult to get the surgery through the NHS. He started researching so-called hospital holidays to Thailand, but found them more expensive than he was expecting. Then he came across another option: Medigo.

“The NHS won’t do surgery unless they believe you have a psychological danger to yourself, or unless there’s a concern about your obesity becoming critical to your health. But I wanted to deal with it before it got to that stage,” Adamson says.

People have travelled for medical treatment for thousands of years, ever since Greek pilgrims set out for the Saronic Gulf, which was believed to be the sanctuary for the healing god Asclepios. But cheap flights and Google mean it’s never been easier. The industry was worth $19.7bn (£14.9bn) in 2016, according to Orbis research, and it is estimated to be growing at 18.8 per cent a year, with a forecast value of $46.6bn by 2021.

Medical tourism hasn’t been the most obvious industry for entrepreneurs. But its growth rate has attracted increasing numbers of startups hoping to act as the gateway between doctor and patient. Medical Departures, based in Hong Kong, secured $2.5m in series A funding in March 2016 for its plan to become “the Airbnb for medical tourism”. Oxa Medical, which started in Hyderabad in December 2016, has been funded by an undisclosed amount by a UAE-based venture capital. Singapore has DocDoc, and Malaysia has BookDoc.

Ugur Samut, who founded Medigo in Berlin in 2014, thinks it has the edge. To date, Medigo has connected over 60,000 patients with doctors in 178 different countries for procedures ranging from brain surgery and cancer treatment to breast implants and tummy tucks. It has secured over €10m (£8.96m) of investment, most recently through an extension round of €3.5m in January 2106 from CL Ventures, based in China.

“We are there to help people,” Samut said. “We don’t charge the patient and we insure the patient in case something goes wrong.” So far they have not paid out, but Samut says it could happen. The insurance lasts for six months after treatment and is taken out in the patient’s home country, so if an Australian has dental work in Thailand, their insurance is in Australia.

Medigo does not want to be the Airbnb for medical tourism. “Unlike Airbnb, capacity is not the issue: we just want the best hospitals,” Samut says. “We’re not listing hotels, we’re asking people to go and get surgery that might be life-threatening.” In the beginning, Medigo spent most of the €2.2m raised from seed investors like Atlantic Internet on checking records.

“If there are 1,000 hospitals in Poland, our goal is to find the best 10 or 15,” he says. Medigo’s team of researchers start by checking public health records and evaluating its findings with doctors in each destination. It takes eight weeks to list a dentist, Samut says, by way of example, from the the first contact to the listing.

Professor Dr Philip Schöttle works with several medical tourism facilitators to reach patients for his bone surgery in Munich. “Medigo’s level of professionalism and service is comparably one of the highest,” Schöttle says. “Patient referrals are highly professional and all necessary information is provided before I see a patient.”

People come to him from all over the world because he specialises in novel orthobiological medicine, which involves reconstructing damaged tissues or organs, involving stem cells. Some of his patients didn’t know such procedures were an option before they found out on the Medigo website.

“Our institute gives patients access to proven, innovative treatments that aren’t yet available in many parts of the world. That can only be a good thing,” Schöttle says.

Yet he recognises that not everyone will be able to afford to pay out of pocket for innovative treatment. And another downside is the lack of industry regulation, which allows for some untrustworthy players in the market: “But they usually don’t last long,” Schöttle says. “In today’s globalised world, there’s nowhere to hide and patients are increasingly informed about their healthcare options.”

Samut is from Istanbul, where he studied for an undergraduate degree in business before moving to Barcelona for a masters in marketing. He started working for Rapid Internet, one of Europe’s biggest startup companies, in Berlin, where he first got interested in the travel industry. At the time, medical travel was growing at 25 per cent year-on-year.

He has since learned that medical tourists come in two groups. There are the wealthy patients from what Samut calls “emerging markets”, often in Asia, seeking better quality treatment in Germany, Switzerland and the UK especially. And then there are those from Western nations who travel to avoid high costs or waiting lists. The Americans and Australians travel to avoid high costs. Waiting lists are mostly the preserve of Canadians and the British.

While the average wait time for a patient on the NHS has been quite stable since 2008, data shows that there has been a steady increase in patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment.

Once Adamson decided to do something about his weight, he wasn’t prepared to wait any longer. He did some research and found good reviews for Dr Hussam Trabulsi, a Syrian surgeon based at Zulekha Hospital in Dubai, just one hour by plane from his home in Qatar. Through Medigo he made the connection. They assigned him an agent from their Care Team who was on hand to answer questions and offer support throughout the process. He says: “The type of surgery I had would probably have taken me a long time on the NHS, and as you get older you realise, ‘It’s time I do something about this’.”

On the morning of the surgery, Adamson arrived at Dubai airport at 6.30am and went straight to the hospital, where he waited for the doctor to start his day. The surgery went well, and he stayed in the hospital for three nights to recover.

Now Adamson weighs 95kg. “Undoubtedly the best money I ever spent,” he says. ”[It] saved my life and indeed, changed my life. I have recommended Medigo to many people.”

Samut says Medigo hopes to make a profit by next summer, after which it will seek further funding to expand either in the US, or in Asia.

“Crossing borders has never been easier for most people in the world, and it’s never been more common,” Schöttle says. “Crossing borders for medical care gives patients options they may not have had before.”