Paid by patients. Advised by physicians. Bounded by medicine.

Our advisory team is made up of physicians from top-tier (Grade 3A) hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with international background and doctoral-level qualifications. They are practising specialists, not sales staff.

What that background actually buys you

Cross-border care most often goes wrong not at the operating table but at the front end: the wrong department, the wrong centre, the wrong expectation about what is even possible. A physician who has worked inside these institutions can usually answer three questions before a patient books a flight.

• Can this be done here? — whether China genuinely offers an advantage for your condition, an equivalent option, or no advantage at all. Some specialties here are world-class in volume and technique; others are not, and saying so saves a family a wasted trip.
• Where should it be done? — the city, the institution, and the sub-specialty team that actually handles your problem, rather than the department whose name sounds closest.
• Who is best suited to it? — matching your specific diagnosis, stage and anatomy to the clinicians who see that problem most often.

This is pathway judgment: a professional opinion about feasibility, placement and fit. It is the part of the journey that is genuinely hard to obtain from the outside, and the part where an inside background makes the largest difference.

Where that judgment stops

Our physicians do not diagnose you, do not prescribe for you and do not decide your treatment, and they do not issue a medical opinion on your individual case in place of the clinicians who examine you. Diagnosis, surgical choice, medication and everything downstream belong to the licensed institution and the physicians who take you on. We hold that line deliberately — not as a legal formality, but because a decision made by someone who has never examined you is not a decision you should rely on.

The clearest proof of independence is advice that reduces our own revenue. We give it whenever it is the honest answer: when your problem can be handled well where you already are; when a remote second opinion is enough to settle the question; when the timing is wrong for travel; or when the realistic gain from coming does not justify the cost, the journey and the disruption to your family.

“Not worth coming” is a legitimate answer, and we treat it as one. We would rather lose a coordination fee than watch a family spend money, time and physical capacity on a trip that does not change the outcome.

This is also why the initial case review is free. A paid first consultation creates pressure to find something worth selling; a free one lets us end the conversation.

Medicine carries uncertainty, and any coordinator who promises you a result is telling you about their sales process rather than about your prognosis. We do not guarantee treatment outcomes, recovery, survival, cost ceilings or visa approval — and we say so plainly instead of letting a vague promise sit in the room.

Nor do we manufacture urgency. “The bed goes next week” or “the price rises next month” are lines used to shorten deliberation, and shortness of deliberation favours the seller. Take our advice to a second coordinator. Take it to your own doctor. Ask us the uncomfortable questions. If a recommendation cannot survive a slow, well-informed comparison, it was not worth acting on.

The medical records, imaging files and contact details you share with us are used for the coordination you asked for and for nothing else. We do not sell them, we do not use them for marketing, and we do not collect sensitive records through public website forms — that happens afterwards, through a separate and explicitly agreed process. Where a hospital or a reviewing physician needs your material, we tell you what is being sent, to whom, and why.

How does PathLuma make money?

Only from service fees paid by the person seeking care: an initial case review (free), a specialist second medical opinion, and China care coordination, with full-journey support priced on request. We accept no commission, rebate or marketing payment from hospitals, clinics or physicians, and we do not take a percentage of your medical costs.

What exactly do your advisory physicians do?

They provide pathway judgment: whether a procedure is realistically available and worthwhile in China, which city, institution and sub-specialty team handles that problem, which clinicians see it most often, and what materials, time and cost ranges are involved. They do not diagnose you, prescribe for you, or decide your treatment — that belongs to the hospital and the physicians who examine you.

Are you affiliated with the hospitals you recommend?

No. We are not owned by, an agent of, or affiliated with any hospital or medical group, and no hospital pays us for referrals or listings. Where we describe a hospital’s capabilities we are describing public information and our team’s professional familiarity with that institution — not a partnership we invented.

Do you guarantee results, costs or visa approval?

No, and we would be cautious about anyone who does. We cannot control clinical outcomes, and we cannot set hospital prices or issue visas. What we can control is the quality of the preparation, the accuracy of the pathway advice, and the transparency of what you are paying for.

If I end up not coming to China, what do I owe you?

The initial case review is free and carries no obligation. If we conclude that travelling to China is not worth it for your situation, that conclusion is also free — and it is a real answer, not a sales tactic. You pay for a defined service only once its scope has been confirmed in writing.