Salus Advisor was created to help patients identify high-level healthcare facilities abroad, telling genuine excellence apart from providers that compete mainly on price.
To support the project, Salus Advisor may have commercial partnerships with some of the facilities featured on the site and may receive compensation when a user decides to contact them or become their patient. This comes at no extra cost to the patient: any compensation is paid directly by the facility.
We select excellence first. A partnership can only follow, never come first.
This is the core principle of our model. A facility is never recommended because it partners with Salus Advisor. The process works exactly the other way round: we first identify a facility we genuinely believe deserves to be recommended, and only afterwards can we consider a commercial partnership.
Our selection takes into account factors such as the professionals' experience and track record, the quality of the materials and technology used, continuity of the medical team, specialisation, outcomes achieved, reputation and patient reviews. For complex procedures, we place particular weight on the hands-on experience of the professional who will actually perform the treatment.
One principle never changes: savings should never come at the expense of quality. We'd rather recommend a slightly more expensive facility that offers highly experienced professionals, premium materials and high standards, than simply point to the cheapest option. The real advantage of care abroad should come mainly from the difference in operating costs between countries, not from compromises on treatment quality.
The score is not for sale
No facility can buy a better position in our rankings. A commercial relationship never replaces our editorial criteria, and never guarantees a given score, a given position, or a positive review.
In the same way, the absence of a commercial partnership never prevents a facility from being reviewed positively. If we believe a facility deserves to be featured, it can appear in our guides and rankings regardless of whether it has a financial relationship with Salus Advisor.
A partnership can also start or end over time without automatically affecting whether a facility enters, leaves, or moves within our rankings. Quality for the patient always remains the priority.
For the same reason, the amount of editorial depth given to a facility — a more extensive profile, more photos, a direct link to its website — is not an indicator of a higher score: it simply reflects how much material we've gathered on that particular case. The score itself is determined solely by the criteria described on the Evaluation Criteria page.
Transparency inside our rankings too
We believe transparency should be visible right where it matters, not tucked away on a stand-alone information page. That's why we state it directly at the top of every ranking, as well as on this page and in the site's other policy pages.
In short: Salus Advisor may receive compensation from some of the facilities it recommends, but we don't recommend a facility because it pays us; we may choose to partner with a facility because, first and foremost, we believe it deserves to be recommended.