Maria Todd

Maria is the only medical tourism published author and consultant in medical tourism with significant training and multisector fusion experience in healthcare, insurance, market research, tourism, meeting planning, and the hospitality industries. The combination of experience and professional education make Maria the worlds' single most knowledgeable advisor in medical tourism. As a result, her unique approach to medical tourism programming, quality and safety is unparalleled in the industry.

Dr. Maria Todd spent the early years of her career in the healthcare, hospitality, and tourism industries. In the 1970s, she worked as a PAAC-certified travel agent, a tour leader, and on the AAA Diamond Approved rating system for the American Automobile Association, the largest travel agency in the United States. While there, she developed and launched AAA Days at Walt Disney World, an extremely successful co-marketing program still thriving today. At the same time, she volunteered as a firefighter/paramedic and fire inspector until a serious injury abruptly ended her volunteer duties.

She worked another 30+ years in nursing and healthcare business administration as a surgical nurse, a hospital executive, a Chief Operating Officer at a large diagnostic imaging company in Florida, and as an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) administrator in California. She holds post graduate degrees in healthcare business administration and numerous additional professional certifications.

In the 1980s, as a medical tourism pioneer, she worked with physician investors to transform abandoned beachfront hotels in South Florida into luxury medical tourism plastic surgery recuperation and senior living resorts. In the early 1990s, she was trained as a health law paralegal and then led the provider contracting department of a large multinational health insurance brand. In the early 2000s, she completed hundreds of mystery shopper site inspection projects in three states through Maritz Research, the largest ISO-certified, custom research company in the United States and among the top 15 research companies in the world.

As the author of 14 healthcare and thermal spa industry trade and reference books, she's hired at least once a month to fly to conferences and meetings throughout the world to speak and consult about topics covered in her books. In all, she's delivered more than 2800 keynotes, seminars, workshops, and panel sessions since 1989.