About the MDtravelhealth channel

MDtravelhealth is a source of travel health information for travellers, written by medical professionals.

You can browse information pertaining to almost every country and detailed information about infection diseases and conditions relating to travel.

We are employing an experimental system (started 2016) whereby contributions and maintenance of the travel health information is provided by medical professionals from around the world, knowledgeable in their own fields of study, and familiar with different regions and as such, their particular healthcare requirements.

Utilising an authenticated Wiki-style system medical professionals can work together to keep the data up-to-date, and at the same time promote themselves and their clinics’ or hospital’s services (both emergency and elective) to patients from around the world.

If you are a medical professional with an interest in travel health and wish to contribute – please sign up with Red Planet Travel and then click to join the MDtravelhealth channel in your User Home page.

Medical Professionals Roles

Only authenticated Medical Professionals can contribute to the MDtravelhealth channel's medical information.

Unlike the parallel TravelWiki system that allows multi-user editing of pages based on Reputation Score, MDtravelhealth pages are assigned to users by the MDtravelhealth Channel Manager based on their experience and knowledge; either of that region's health situation or of the illness, special needs or infection disease that can affect travellers.

Medical professionals can gain Reputation Score, and the privileges that confers, by answering Travel Questions, maintaining their Medical Practices' information, and contributing general travel information using their Capacities.

How to subscribe to the MDtravelhealth channel

If you are a medical professional and want to subscribe - apply to edit MDtravelhealth pages, add Travel Health information about your clinic, or publish Health Alerts - then please follow these steps.

Ensure you have signed up and logged in to a normal Red Planet Travel user account.

In the User Home page in the navigation menu you need to complete your Profile information to 100% - in particular we need to see your medical career references and your place of work with links to it, or other websites that reference your work.

Once you have done this you can subscribe to the channel by selecting it under the Channels tab.

You can at this point go to the page(s) that you wish to contribute and apply on the page - you can select from Destinations and Resource Pages

We will then let you know when you have been accepted onto the Channel via an Internal Message that will also be sent to your email address.

You will be able to add sections and edit pages that have been assigned to you.  Please apply to as many pages that your specialist knowledge will allow you to make useful contribution on.  More than one Medical Professional can edit a MDth Country or Resource page.

How to manage your MDth pages

Only Medical Professionals who have applied and been granted access to Country or Resources pages under the MDtravelhealth channel can edit pages.

How to edit the text of a page section

Ensure you are logged into your account.  You can find a list of pages you have been assigned in your User Home page under the MDtravelhealth Channel tab.

Navigate to the page you have been assigned and wish to make changes. Click the Edit link.

You will see the Page Section change to "edit mode" and can now make changes - please remember to summarise the changes in a short phrase in the Edit Comment section.

How to revert the Page Section back to a previous version

Click the link to Edit the page section as above. Click the "Revisions" link and you will see a table appear with all the previous versions of the Page Section.  Use the Radio Button to view the previous versions.

Edit as necessary to recover the information you need.  Press "Save" and the Page Section will be updated.

How to Add a new Page Section

Ensure that the information you are about to add does not fit under any of the existing Page Sections.  If not, you need to add a new Page Section (paragraph).

Navigate to the page you wish to add the Page Section.  At the top in the Section Management area, click the + sign (which will turn into a - when you click it).

This will open the Section Management area up.  Click the Add new section link and a new section Name and Text area will open.

Enter the new information and press the Add Section.  You can edit the text (including adding links and formatting) once the Section has been added.

How to add your Hospital, Clinic or Medical Practice to MDtravelhealth

We have thousands of travellers a month looking for a medical clinic and travel health and tourism information from all over the world.

Medical professionals can add their premises and all the services they offer to our system.  There is no charge for this.

You need to sign up for a normal user account at Red Planet Travel.   You need to use an email address on the same domain as your Clinic.

Once you are logged in use the Destination Search at the top of any page to find your clinic.

Navigate to the clinic's page by picking the correct location, then clicking "Go".

If your clinic does not appear in the list check Google Business has you listed and that you are using the correct name for the location.

Once you are on the Clinic's page scroll down until you see this section, where it invites you to become Page Location Owner.

Click the "Yes, I want!" button and follow prompts for there.

You will be able to add Tags for all the medical procedures that you perform - both acute treatment for travellers medical conditions and any elective procedures you perform such as Travel Tourism operations.

Once you've added the Tags make sure you fill out Page Sections on your page filling out the details of the procedures, including prices and options.

Finally check that your Clinic appears in the Clinic finder for the correct tag searches you want to appear for.

Origin and history of MDtravelhealth

The MDtravelhealth began life as the work of David Goldberg MD and was hosted on a dedicated domain - MDtravelhealth.com.

He started the site in the year 2000 because at that time, in the early days of the Internet, there was a need for a website that gave travelers a detailed, up-to-date review of all the health information they would need for any given country.

He maintains a private practice in Scarsdale NY, where he has advised many travelers. He is a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Wilderness Medical Society. He is also a contributing author for the Lonely Planet series of guide books.

The original website text was prepared by David Goldberg MD, with the editorial assistance of Wendy K. Goldberg. Dr. Goldberg graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and with honors from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where he has also served as voluntary faculty.

In 2015, he decided to retire from MD Travel Health and the website and contents were acquired by Red Planet Travel. The serveral hundred page web site and data were migrated to the Red Planet Travel domain by using an internal tool.  This tool is now publically available at 301 redirect website for other website owners wishing to make a website migration. 

Red Planet Travel wishes to thank David for allowing us to carry on the work that he started back in 2000.

It should be noted that while the site is in transition to its new home in the Red Planet Travel family of websites and new editors are found some of the information on this site may be outdated.

As David recommended in the past, please consider the Centers for Disease Control in their Travel Health website, available at www.cdc.gov. Most of the information that has been provided is now available there, and at this time we would encourage you to visit their site before going abroad.

As with all medical information you find on the internet, you should consult a qualified local physician for your particular circumstances and specialist advice.