Memorial Hospitals Group provided our family’s health check-ups as part of a partnership. Everything shared here reflects our personal experience and is for informational purposes only, not medical advice. Preventive care and screening needs vary by individual, so please discuss your healthcare needs with your physician.
After traveling full-time with our two kids for nearly two years, my husband and I realized we had fallen behind on something pretty important: our own preventive healthcare.
Our kids were up to date on their annual check-ups, vaccinations, and dental care, but it had been about a year and a half since either of us had routine lab work or a more comprehensive check-up. We felt healthy, but after spending 10 years working in medicine, we also knew that feeling fine doesn’t always tell you what’s happening inside your body.
So while we were in Istanbul, Türkiye, our entire family went through Memorial Hospitals’ preventive health check-up program. In a single day, all four of us completed extensive laboratory testing, imaging, and appointments with multiple specialists.
We walked into the hospital as four healthy people with no symptoms. By the end of the day, we had a much clearer picture of our health, and even learned something about one of our kids that we didn’t know before.
Why Preventive Care Still Matters to Us After Leaving Medicine
Before we left our careers to travel full-time with our kids, my husband and I both worked as physician assistants for around 10 years. I spent seven years in trauma and critical care before moving into emergency medicine. My husband spent three years in urgent care and seven years in emergency medicine.
We weren’t working in primary care, but we constantly saw what happened when health problems weren’t caught until something went very wrong. Heart attacks, strokes, complications from high blood pressure and diabetes, and cancers that had already grown or spread. The emergency might have happened that day, but the problem behind it had often been developing quietly for years.
That’s what stuck with us. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, and other risk factors don’t necessarily make you feel sick while they’re developing. Preventive care gives you a chance to find some of those problems earlier, when there may still be an opportunity to do something about them.
Leaving medicine didn’t change how we think about that. We would rather have information about our health while we’re feeling well than wait for our bodies to give us a reason to go looking for it.
Why We Chose to Get a Full Health Check-Up While Traveling Abroad
Long-term travel changed the way we manage healthcare. We no longer have the same doctors we see every year or one healthcare system keeping track of everything for us. We might get our teeth cleaned in one country, have an eye exam in another, and take care of annual appointments when we’re back in the United States.
That works, but it also makes routine care surprisingly easy to put off.
We had kept up with some things while traveling, but neither my husband nor I had done routine lab work or a full preventive check-up in about a year and a half. We also had specific family histories we wanted to stay on top of. Glaucoma runs in my family, and my husband has a family history of cardiovascular disease at a young age.
We weren’t looking for treatment for a problem. We wanted a chance to stop in one place, get updated information on our health, and address anything that needed our attention before continuing our travels.
Memorial Hospital in Türkiye gave us the opportunity to do that without piecing together appointments across multiple doctors, offices, and weeks.
Why We Chose Memorial Hospital Istanbul
We actually first heard about Memorial Hospital a couple of years before we ever stepped foot inside one. Another traveler shared their experience getting a full health check-up at Memorial in Türkiye, and it immediately caught our attention.
At the time, we were both still working in medicine and had no idea this type of healthcare experience abroad existed. So when our travels eventually brought us to Istanbul, Memorial was already in the back of our minds.
We visited Memorial Göztepe Hospital, a new, state-of-the-art facility in Istanbul. The hospital itself felt more like an upscale hotel than the sterile medical environment we were used to, but what stood out most was how much was handled for us as international patients.
Before our appointment, an international patient coordinator communicated with us through WhatsApp, scheduled our check-ups, and arranged transportation, including airport pickup and drop-off and transportation to and from the hospital on the day of our appointments.
Once we arrived, a translator stayed with us throughout the day. Most of our physicians spoke Turkish with varying levels of English, so having someone with us during appointments was important. Our translator also knew the hospital incredibly well and essentially became our guide for the day, moving us between departments based on availability instead of having us sit around waiting for the next scheduled appointment.
Even with four people completing check-ups, we rarely waited more than 20 to 30 minutes. After our fasting blood work that morning, breakfast was also included in a private area of the hospital, which was especially appreciated by two kids who had been fasting with us.
For a family navigating healthcare in another country and language, that coordination made the entire experience significantly easier. We didn’t have to figure out where to go, schedule individual specialists, or navigate the hospital ourselves. We showed up, and Memorial coordinated the rest.
What Our Full Health Check-Up at Memorial Hospital Included
My husband and I both completed Memorial’s Essential Check-Up, while our children completed the Detailed Pediatric Check-Up.
Our adult check-ups included fasting blood work, abdominal ultrasounds, chest X-rays, eye exams, dental evaluations, and a cardiac evaluation with an ECG, echocardiogram, and exercise stress test. I also saw a gynecologist for a Pap smear, transvaginal ultrasound, and breast ultrasound, while my husband saw a urologist.
Our kids’ check-ups were built around their age and development. They had blood work, abdominal ultrasounds, dental and eye evaluations, and pediatric appointments.
What made the process especially useful was that the testing connected directly to the specialist visits later in the day. By the time we sat down with the doctors, our labs and imaging were already available for them to review, so we could discuss the results, ask questions, and leave with recommendations instead of waiting days or weeks for follow-up.
For four people, it was a lot of testing in one day. But that was also the point: we were able to get a much broader picture of our family’s health without spreading the process across multiple appointments.
What We Actually Learned From Our Health Check-Ups
The most interesting part of this entire experience was that none of us walked into Memorial because something felt wrong. We were four healthy people getting preventive check-ups, which made the things we learned even more valuable.
For my husband, one of our biggest priorities was his heart. He has a family history of cardiovascular disease at a young age, so being able to look beyond basic blood pressure and cholesterol with an ECG, echocardiogram, and exercise stress test gave us information we had wanted for years.
For me, eye health was especially important because glaucoma runs in my family. I had already been monitoring my eye pressure while traveling, so having another comprehensive eye evaluation gave me updated information to continue following.
But the biggest surprise actually came from one of our daughters.
Our oldest had never had a full eye exam before. She wasn’t complaining that she couldn’t see, and we hadn’t noticed anything that made us think there was a problem. During her eye evaluation at Memorial, we learned that she needed glasses.
That discovery was why including our kids in the check-ups ended up being so valuable to us. It wasn’t about assuming something was wrong or trying to test for every possible condition. It was about getting information we wouldn’t have had otherwise and being able to act on it early.
By the time we left Memorial, we weren’t walking away with a vague “everything looks fine.” We had results, specialist recommendations, and a much clearer idea of what each of us needed to keep monitoring as we continued traveling.
How Healthcare in Türkiye Compared With What We Were Used to in the United States
Having both worked inside the U.S. healthcare system for years, one of the most surprising parts of this experience was the access.
Some of the blood work we received could absolutely be part of a routine preventive visit in the United States. But as healthy adults in our 30s without symptoms, tests like an abdominal ultrasound, echocardiogram, or exercise stress test generally wouldn’t be ordered simply because we wanted a broader look at our health.
Then there is the logistics of doing all of this for four people. In the U.S., these tests and specialist visits would likely mean separate appointments, different offices, insurance approvals, and potentially weeks or months of scheduling.
At Memorial, the testing and specialists were under one roof. Our results followed us throughout the day, so doctors could review them during our appointments rather than sending us home and scheduling another visit later.
The biggest difference for us wasn’t that we couldn’t find high-quality medical care in the United States. We absolutely could.
It was how easily we could access this much of it at once.
As a family traveling long-term, being able to dedicate one day to our health instead of organizing our travels around weeks of medical appointments was incredibly valuable.
What Our Memorial Hospital Health Check-Up Cost
Our check-ups were provided as part of our partnership with Memorial. At the time of our visit, the Essential Check-Up was $1,400 per adult and the Detailed Pediatric Check-Up was $650 per child, which would have totaled $4,100 for our family of four.
Comparing that $4,100 directly with what the same care would cost in the United States is difficult because there isn’t a true one-to-one equivalent. In the U.S., the tests and specialist visits would typically be ordered and billed separately, and the amount a family pays can vary significantly based on insurance, deductibles, location, and whether each test is considered medically necessary.
Memorial also works with a number of international insurance companies, so depending on your policy, some or all of the cost may be covered. Our travel medical insurance is primarily designed for emergencies, so preventive care like this is not covered under our plan.
Packages and pricing can change, so we recommend contacting Memorial directly for current pricing and reviewing exactly what is included before booking.
Would We Recommend Preventive Care Abroad at Memorial Hospital?
For our family, yes.
What made the experience valuable wasn’t just the amount of testing. It was being able to walk into one hospital, have four people evaluated, speak with multiple specialists, get our results, and leave with a clearer picture of our health without putting our travels on hold.
No preventive health package is going to include every test that may be appropriate for you. We recommend looking through exactly what’s included beforehand and discussing your personal and family history with your physician to decide whether there are additional tests you should consider.
After traveling long-term, healthcare abroad is something we view very differently than we did before we left the United States. We’ve learned that leaving the U.S. healthcare system doesn’t mean leaving high-quality healthcare behind. In some places, we’ve actually found it easier to access the care our family needs.
Our experience at Memorial was a good example of that. We gave up one day in Istanbul, and all four of us walked away with updated information about our health, including something about our daughter that we didn’t know before.
For us, that was absolutely worth it.
If you’re traveling through Türkiye and want to learn more about Memorial Hospital’s health check-up packages, you can find their current packages, testing options, and contact information here.
