Due to the trend of internationalization, travel clinics have been established in various regions of Japan to provide vaccinations and prescriptions of prophylactic medication to travelers. However, there is a lack of data on travelers’ characteristics and their vaccine needs in Japan.

This study aimed to understand the characteristics of pre-travel consultations in Japan by collecting data on the contents of travel consultations, including vaccines and prophylactic medication, provided in response to travel details at multi-center travel clinics.

Another objective is to investigate standard practices for the content of pre-travel consultations and to promote the equalization of the quality of travel consultations in Japan. To assist in equalizing quality, we will create a medical support tool that combines the obtained data. At the same time, we will develop a web-based tool that can provide support for pre-travel consultations. We hope to compare our practices with those of other institutions and review our practices through this tool.

History

Subject:

Subjects were clients who came to the research institute for pre-travel consultation.

Exclusion criteria:

1. Clients who do not plan to travel abroad.
2. Clients who have received pre-travel consultation at institutions other than the research institute and do not wish to receive it at the research institute.

Registered facility conditions:

1. General hospitals that offer pre-travel consultation.
2. At least 50 new cases of pre-travel consultation per year.

Informed consent:

Substitute for obtaining consent by disclosing information in a public information document and opting out.

Methods:

Register information obtained from regular pre-travel consultation in a proprietary web registry

Research institutes (Prefecture) on 1 January 2022:

National Center for Global Health and Medicine (Tokyo); Nara Seibu Hospital (Nara); Kenwakai Otemachi Hospital (Fukuoka); Osaka City General Hospital (Osaka); Kyoto City Hospital (Kyoto); Shinshu University Hospital (Nagano); Hamamatsu Medical Center (Shizuoka); Rinku General Medical Center (Osaka); Kyushu University Hospital (Fukuoka); Tottori University Hospital (Tottori); Japanese Red Cross Society Wakayama Medical Center (Wakayama); Sapporo City General Hospital (Hokkaido); Yamanashi Prefectural Central Hospital (Yamanashi); Fukuyama City Hospital (Hiroshima); Aso Iizuka Hospital (Fukuoka), Toyama University Hospital (Toyama); Nara Medical University Hospital (Nara)