Healthy Travel Launches Virtual Travel Health Clinic

As the Medical Director of Healthy Travel, I am delighted to introduce our new virtual travel health clinic, designed to keep Australian travellers safe and healthy, regardless of where they live or how they plan to travel.

Healthy Travel is a project born from our commitment to providing comprehensive travel medicine services to Australians. The delivery of these services has evolved significantly over the years. In the late 1980s, yellow fever vaccines were only available through the Australian Government Health Services (AGHS) in major population centres, while typhoid and cholera vaccines could be sourced through GPs, but little else was available.

The 1990s saw significant advancements in travel health services with the development of more "travel vaccines" and the approval of medical practices to specialise in travel health, including yellow fever vaccination. This centralisation of specialised vaccines at one site was a logical step forward, aligning with the emerging specialty of Travel Medicine on an international level, marked by the launch of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM). Practitioners' skills expanded to include pre-travel risk assessments, education, and the diagnosis and management of sick travellers.

With over twenty years of experience as the Medical Director of several Australian volunteer programs, including the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD), I have faced many challenges in preparing candidates for these programs, particularly those from regional locations or overseas. Today, with advanced medical information systems, these challenges would be much easier to overcome. We have gained valuable insights into delivering health services in isolated settings.

A significant positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic is the widespread adoption of tele-health, enabling us to provide travel health advice as effectively as if the patient were sitting in the same room. The pandemic also fostered closer collaboration with primary care partners, including pharmacies and pathology services.

At Healthy Travel, our virtual telehealth travel medicine consultations offer expert travel health advice from the comfort of your home, making pre-travel preparation seamless and efficient. Through our coordinated travel vaccination service, you can source the recommended vaccines and medications locally, with the same convenience extended to our corporate clients.

We also provide travellers with a lifelong vaccine record, accessible from anywhere in the world. Our goal is to help all travellers build a permanent vaccine record, similar to how those born since the late 1990s can access their routine vaccine records.

Our commitment to keeping travellers informed is reflected in our continuous travel health news updates, empowering you to make well-informed decisions about your journey.

For further information, please contact:

Healthy Travel
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