What do I physically leave with?

A same-day consultation on preliminary findings, and then, weeks later, the written report. The imaging itself comes on encrypted media rather than as a printout, because a radiologist at home needs the original images and not a photograph of them. What arrives when, and which centres publish a turnaround figure at all, is set out in a separate article.

Will my own doctor read a report from a clinic they have never heard of?

That question has its own page, because it is the largest objection to this whole idea and it deserves a straight answer rather than a reassurance. The short version is that your doctor is not obliged to act on outside findings and some will want to repeat a test before treating, and the useful thing is to remove every avoidable reason for refusal rather than to promise there are none.

What should I ask for before I leave the centre?

Two things. That the imaging is on media you can actually read at home, and that the report names the reporting physician and the standard used. Both are ordinary requests and both are far easier to make in the building than by email from another continent three weeks later.

Should I tell my own doctor before I go?

Yes, and it costs nothing. A GP who knows a screening is happening can tell you what would be genuinely useful to bring back for your particular history, which is better targeted than anything a booking service can guess. It also means the report arrives as something expected rather than as an unexplained document from abroad.

Guides · Records

The handover
is the part people skip.

What this page is

Mechanics, not a promise.

No figure appears on this page, so nothing here is sourced or unsourced. It describes a process. The separate question of whether a doctor at home is obliged to act on findings from a clinic they do not know is answered on the reports page, which states the limitation rather than talking around it, and this page assumes you have read that and want to know what to actually do.

Ask while you are there

Two requests, both ordinary.

The images, not pictures of the images. A radiologist at home needs the original imaging data on media they can open, not a PDF of selected views. Ask what you are leaving with and confirm you can read it before you fly, because this is trivially fixed at the desk and genuinely awkward from another continent.

A named reporter and a stated standard. A report signed by the reading physician, with their licence number and the reporting standard used, is a document another clinician can situate. An unsigned summary is not, whatever it says. This is the single most useful thing to check before you leave.

Before you fly out

Tell your own doctor first.

A short conversation before the trip is worth more than anything that happens after it. Your GP knows your history and can name what would actually be useful to bring back, which is better targeted than a general screening package or anything a booking service can infer. It also means the report lands as a document they were expecting rather than as an unexplained file from abroad, and that difference is most of how these records get read or ignored.

If there is one thing on this page to act on before booking rather than after, it is this.

When it arrives

The report follows you home.

You do not wait in Korea for the written report. There is a consultation on the day covering preliminary findings, and the full document follows by email or post after you have flown, which means a longer turnaround does not lengthen the trip. How long that is, and the fact that one of the centres publishes no turnaround figure at all, is set out separately rather than summarised into a single reassuring number here.

WHAT IS SAME-DAY AND WHAT IS NOT

Questions

Asked and answered.

What do I physically leave with?: A same-day consultation on preliminary findings, and then, weeks later, the written report. The imaging itself comes on encrypted media rather than as a printout, because a radiologist at home needs the original images and not a photograph of them. What arrives when, and which centres publish a turnaround figure at all, is set out in a separate article.
Will my own doctor read a report from a clinic they have never heard of?: That question has its own page, because it is the largest objection to this whole idea and it deserves a straight answer rather than a reassurance. The short version is that your doctor is not obliged to act on outside findings and some will want to repeat a test before treating, and the useful thing is to remove every avoidable reason for refusal rather than to promise there are none.
What should I ask for before I leave the centre?: Two things. That the imaging is on media you can actually read at home, and that the report names the reporting physician and the standard used. Both are ordinary requests and both are far easier to make in the building than by email from another continent three weeks later.
Should I tell my own doctor before I go?: Yes, and it costs nothing. A GP who knows a screening is happening can tell you what would be genuinely useful to bring back for your particular history, which is better targeted than anything a booking service can guess. It also means the report arrives as something expected rather than as an unexplained document from abroad.