In times of critical illness, reaching the right specialist in the right hospital is an important decision to make.

Here is a step by step guide on choosing the best suited specialist Doctor for your health problem –

Step 1 – Identifying the health problem and the corresponding speciality.
Your local general physician or an internal medicine specialist should be able to identify the exact problem and suggest you a few tests which would confirm the problem you have and the speciality that applies to the health problem.

Step 2 – Researching on the top ranked hospitals in India for that speciality
You should look for credible sources of information on hospital rankings. There are those available in media – who publish these after a complete research. These top hospital rankings are available nation wide, city wise and speciality wise. For an International medical traveller, you can choose nation – wide rankings for your concerned speciality. www.treatmenttraveller.com offers curated and aggregated rankings of top hospitals in India, collated from these rankings carried by media.

Step 3 – Sharing your reports, to get opinion, treatment plan and an estimate of cost.
You may like to send your reports to one or more hospitals for an opinion, treatment plan and a cost estimate of the health problem. Be sure that you send all the reports required, else you may get an answer asking you to undergo all tests required. Also, ask for Doctors profile and other questions that you have in mind.

Step 4 – Compare and evaluate.
Now that you have opinion, Doctor profiles and cost estimate from more than one Hospital, you may like to compare all of these to check if the treatment plan is same or varying, cost estimate, period of stay in Hospital, items included and excluded in the cost, follow ups required. Its also helpful to read reviews about the hospital and Doctor on Google, Facebook and Treatment Traveller. In the Doctors profile, look for his Education details – his colleges, specialisation , super specialisation and fellowship (if any), experience in years, reported success rates, testimonials from other similar patients.

Step 5 – Don’t waste time.
Time is precious when it comes to critical health problem. Tell the hospital that you have chosen them for the treatment and ask for next steps like visa invitation letter, appointment and surgery schedule. Thank others whom you have not chosen for their help.

Treatment Traveller aims to help you choosing the best suited Doctor for your healthcare problem in a customised manner, best suited to you.