Tokyo is the best hospital city in the world

Tokyo takes the cake when it comes to overall hospital infrastructure compared to worldwide cities, according to a new ranking that measured the best hospital cities in 2019. In the U.S., Boston is the best hospital city, coming in at No. 2 worldwide.

The ranking looked for infrastructure and quality of care to compare cities on their hospitals. One world-class hospital can stand out in a city or state, but an overall medical framework that offers easy access and high-quality care to all its citizens is an important consideration. Medbelle, a digital hospital launched in 2016, ranked the best hospital cities based on the overall hospital ecosystem in the area instead of individual institutions.

“There are several existing hospital rankings around, but this is the first-ever comparison of top hospital cities which looks at the bigger picture and answers this very important question: Do their medical facilities cater to all of their city’s patients, not just the wealthy or privileged ones?” Daniel Kolb, co-founder and managing director at Medbelle, said in a statement.

Tokyo had the highest overall quality of care score in the index as well as the highest top-ranking hospitals score. The city also snagged a very high access score to round out its No. 1 ranking.

Boston had the highest score for best infrastructure, but it didn’t crack the top 10 list of cities with the best access. In fact, the city ranked 67th out of 100 cities worldwide for access. Home to Harvard Medical School and more, Boston did take the No. 1 spot for the best medical universities.