by Stacie Gottsegen

Here in BajaTraveler®, we’ve perfected the art of curation. We curate our surf spots, where to see the best sunsets, our coffee runs.  We know the guy who serves the freshest fish, who makes the best tacos, that tiny mezcal bar, the private beach for that romantic proposal.  

When you travel, you plan on what to pack.  You pre-book massages and make dinner reservations. You plan a bucket list trip…an itinerary that you curate for maximum enjoyment and memories to last a lifetime. 

What you don’t plan for is getting sick on your vacation.

So, is traveling with a list of english speaking doctors becoming a thing? The answer increasingly appears to be yes －and Baja Travelers may be leading the way.

The coolest trend in travel isn’t color-coded packing cubes or a great novel for beach reading. It’s having a curated list of English-speaking doctors save before you travel.  For many travelers, it’s quickly becoming a smart addition to any well-planned trip.  

Enter MyAbroadMDs: Make the Trend Accessible

We spoke to Cori Cohen, CEO of “My Abroad MD’s” who explains:
“it’s not being paranoid or over-planning. It’s simply the natural evolution of how many of us already travel.  Think about it: We live in the age of the hyper-curated trip. We don’t just “find a place to eat”—we’ve saved dozens of reels about the best fish tacos. We don’t just “figure out the beach situation”—we’ve joined groups and follow locals to discover hidden spots.  So why are we still winging it when it comes to healthcare?”

What began as Cohen sending her daughter abroad with a personally curated list of English speaking doctors has evolved into MyAbroadMDs, a platform designed to help travelers prepare for healthcare needs before they leave home.  The concept mirrors how many people already plan their trips: organize information in advance rather than scrambling to figure it out in the moment. 

Before boarding a plane, members receive a Curated Doctor Directory (CDD) tailored to their destinations. The directories compile English-speaking healthcare providers — including physicians, urgent care facilities, and  specialists— so travelers have helpful contacts readily available if needed. 

Instead of searching online while sick in an unfamiliar place, traveled have resources saved ahead of time. It’s the same energy people bring to planning restaurants, hotels, and experiences － applied to something that could impact the trip in a much bigger way. 

Many experienced  Baja Travelers already do something similar. Along with restaurant recommendations, they often arrive with healthcare contacts saved in their phones. Not because they expect something to go wrong, but because being prepared makes travel easier. 

The App: Travel Health Planning in Your Pocket

MyAbroadMDs is preparing to launch its mobile app, designed to make these resources easier for travelers to access. The app will organize healthcare information for travelers across more than 100 countries.

Features include:

 ∙ Curated Doctor Directories organized by travel destination

 ∙ PIMS (Private Individual Medical Summary) a personal vault where travelers can store their own health and travel documents

 ∙ Chat support to help travelers locate English-speaking medical resources while abroad

 ∙Assistance identifying specialists in advance for travelers managing ongoing health conditions

The goal is simple, help travelers feel more prepared and informed if they need medical care while traveling. 

The Self-Advocacy Movement:

This emerging trend isn’t about fear—it’s about preparation. Travelers today advocate for themselves at home when it comes to healthcare. Increasingly, they’re beginning to think about how that same mindset applies when they travel internationally.

Having information organized in advance can make a stressful moment easier to navigate. For many travelers, the peace of mind that comes from planning ahead is worth the few minutes it takes to set things up.

And as more travelers begin to think about healthcare the same way they think about restaurants or hotels—something worth planning ahead—the idea of curating healthcare contacts before a trip is becoming part of the modern travel toolkit.

Because knowing the right verified doctor to call changes everything—especially when you’re sick in a foreign country.

For more information, please visit myabroadmds.com