My name is Ilene Little, and I started Traveling4Health because I couldn’t find a comprehensive website where I could find and communicate directly with people from my own country and culture who were taking advantage of traveling for treatment or who could share how they were handling their health and wellness needs while residing abroad.

I have so many fond memories of traveling and even working in different parts of the world that it wetted my appetite for developing personal and business relationships worldwide.  I wanted to design my own lifestyle and I didn’t want to limit my options with national borders.

As a former newspaper reporter I began to build a network of contacts and resources for the benefit of all, using my interview skills to get to know and build a track record of trust with people whose experiences and expertise I found intriguing. 

It’s this priceless process of finding people of interest and communicating with them that I wish to share through our community! 

Update 4/1/11: 

More background:  In addition to being a newspaper reporter, I was a licensed tour guide in the Caribbean and in the Pacific Northwest for over 15 years.  I also had a medical patient advocacy business in Seattle.  I love to travel and to stay in countries for 4-5 months at a time.  For the last several years I concentrated on telling the stories of people who live or travel abroad for medical procedures to experience a healthier and less costly lifestyle. 

Recently I published "How To Plan A Successful Medical Tourism Trip" - the ONLY consumer guide to medical tourism written with 12 leading subject experts on medical and dental tourism.  My next book will be on retiring abroad.  My continuing research and content in the book will feature those expat communities and "designer retirement developments" that offer the medical infrastructure to support the active lifestyles of retirees.  Such research requires a lot of travel in the field talking to people who live in these communities.  I intend to share with others what I learn.  My husband and I will conduct guided tours: "discover retirement options abroad".  We'll be doing what we love.  Yippee!!