Over the past year or so there have been a number of projects that have attempted to bring telemedicine to life.  For instance, VIDA have provided a platform to allow you to access all manner of health coaches from around the world.

Babylon are attempting to do similar things for medical conditions, whilst the likes of Figure1 have allowed patients to gain second opinions on their conditions over the web for a little while now.

Heck, even Google have dipped their toe into this marketplace, with news earlier this year that they were trialling offering remote consultations for users entering health related search terms.

The one thing that binds all of these ventures together is that all of the work is done virtually.  You don’t actually meet a doctor face to face in any of them.

That isn’t to say that real life medical tourism isn’t still a huge deal, and indeed, a number of sites are emerging to help people locate healthcare overseas.

The latest of these is the German based Medigo, who provide users with tools to plan and manage their health tourism trips overseas.

The site has recently secured a hefty dose of venture funding, and plans to roll out in both America and the UK in the new year.

The backing is not without credence, as the site has already signed up a wide range of clinics throughout Europe that offer patients a whole range of healthcare services.

Users can browse the site for whatever service they require, be that eye surgery, dentistry, specific drug plans, maybe even plastic surgery.  They can select specific locations if they want to narrow their search by geography, and the site will return a list of clinics offering those services in that region, together with extensive information about each clinic.

For instance, you’ll have access to any accreditation the clinic has, what their specialty is, any notable clinicians on the roster, the kind of languages they cater for and so on.

Oh, and of course they let you compare the prices of each clinic via the site.

Once you have a clinic in mind, you can contact them via the site and go ahead and book your procedure with them.  Any customer support needed is provided via the Medigo team.

It looks a nice service, and provides yet more reminders that patients are no longer willing to be passive consumers of whatever is given to them.  They want to drive the process, whether that’s having virtual consultations or going abroad for the best care.

You can check out Medigo in more detail via their site or through the video below.