Choosing the right hospital, specialist and physician should take priority over a destination’s general reputation when patients travel abroad for medical treatment, according to American Hospital Group CEO Sherif Bishara
Patients considering medical treatment abroad need more detailed information about individual healthcare providers rather than relying primarily on the reputation of a country as a medical destination, American Hospital Group CEO Sherif Bishara has argued.
Speaking during the Arab Media Summit 2026 in Dubai, Bishara addressed international patient treatment as part of a wider discussion about healthcare quality, patient safety and transparency.
His comments highlight an important challenge for the medical travel sector: a country may have a strong healthcare reputation while standards, expertise and outcomes can still differ considerably between hospitals, medical specialties and individual physicians.
Medical destinations require more precise evaluation
According to Bishara, selecting a country should therefore be only one part of the decision-making process for patients seeking treatment internationally.
Greater attention should be given to the hospital providing the procedure, the relevant medical department, the experience of the individual physician and the results achieved in comparable cases.
This approach would shift the focus of medical travel from destination marketing towards measurable healthcare quality and specialist expertise.
Bishara also called for more systematic evaluation of treatment provided to patients who are referred abroad. Quality monitoring, he suggested, should not end when a patient leaves the domestic healthcare system but should cover the selection of an overseas provider and the results of the treatment received.
Price and advertising can create risks
The issue is particularly relevant as patients increasingly have access to healthcare providers across different countries and price categories.
Bishara cautioned against selecting overseas treatment primarily on the basis of promotional claims or lower costs. Patients can experience complications following treatment abroad when the chosen institution or physician does not provide the necessary level of expertise.
For medical travelers, this underlines the importance of assessing clinical qualifications and treatment experience alongside costs, accessibility and the attractiveness of a destination.
It also points to a broader challenge facing the international healthcare industry: patients need reliable information that allows meaningful comparisons between providers rather than general assumptions about the quality of healthcare in individual countries.
Dubai seeks a stronger position in international healthcare
Dubai itself has developed into an international healthcare destination, supported by private hospital groups and government initiatives aimed at expanding the emirate’s medical sector.
Bishara said the American Hospital has received international patients whose treatment options elsewhere had been considered limited. According to him, these have included patients arriving from Germany.
He used such cases to illustrate his broader argument that specialist expertise can sometimes be more important than national reputation when deciding where a patient should receive treatment.
Patient referrals should follow medical expertise
Bishara also addressed the responsibilities of hospitals when patients require treatment that they cannot optimally provide themselves.
In such situations, he argued, the appropriate response is referral to another institution with greater expertise in the required procedure or specialty rather than retaining the patient for commercial reasons.
For international healthcare providers, such referral practices could become an important element of quality management. Medical travel often involves several organizations, including hospitals, physicians, insurers, referral agencies and facilitators, making clear criteria for selecting the appropriate provider particularly important.
The discussion in Dubai reflects a wider issue for the medical travel industry: international healthcare cannot be evaluated solely by destination, price or hospital brand. Greater transparency about specialist expertise, physician experience, patient safety and treatment outcomes could give patients a stronger basis for deciding where to seek care abroad.
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