What we checked, where we read it, and on what date: the working notes behind the figures on this site.
Every figure is sourced and dated on its own page.
A spine MRI images the discs, the spinal cord and the nerve roots without radiation, and it explains most persistent neck or lower-back pain. It also finds a lot that is not the cause of yours.
A whole-body MRI covers five regions in one scan with no radiation, which is both its strength and the source of its two blind spots. Here is what it catches and what still needs a different test.
The partner centres sit in different parts of Seoul, and which one you are sent to decides where it makes sense to sleep. Verified addresses, the stations they sit on, and a handful of properties within reach of each.
Korea finds two thirds of its stomach cancers while they are still localized. The United States finds under a third. That gap is the clearest argument for screening, and it is also the reason Korea's survival figures need reading carefully.
Korea publishes more detail on medical tourism than almost any country. The figures are also counted in a way that makes them easy to quote wrongly, and the checkup numbers in circulation are a good example.
Korea has about twice the OECD average of MRI units per person and the most hospital beds of any member country. The OECD, in the same report, declines to call that better care. Both halves are worth having.
Korean screening centres do give you a doctor on the day you are scanned. The written report is a different thing, and it takes two to three weeks.
The two are different numbers, and the difference is not a foreigner surcharge. Here is how to tell which one you are looking at.
Korean law requires screening centres to publish their own price lists. Here is what a full checkup charges, in dollars, with the won figure and the rate behind it.
