I'm not a doctor, and I don't prescribe from Seat 2B. But I'll tell you this: Business travelers are much too cavalier about their health on the road.

Part of our medical myopia comes from the grind of the road itself: When we travel, we eat badly and at odd times, we eschew our normal exercise regimens, and we wedge ourselves into tiny airline seats, contorting our bodies into peculiar positions for time-zone-warping hours on end. And part of our problem is studied denial: We wrap ourselves in a cloak of invulnerability while travelling and simply make believe that nothing bad can happen to us away from home.

But bad things do happen to good travelers, and that's when our unwillingness to deal with our medical well-being could come back to haunt us.

I’ve used the following sites and strategies to great advantage over the years. But as I said a few weeks ago in a column about travel websites take the recommendations with the proverbial grain of salt. You may have other and more specific needs. And please, leave a comment below telling me what works for you when it comes to medical care and prevention on the road.

I Don't Leave Home Without It
There is one medical accoutrement I insist on carrying: My MedJetAssist card. MedJetAssist is not health insurance or travel insurance. What it is, simply put, is peace of mind. If you're hospitalized more than 150 miles away from home, MedJetAssist will arrange for no-cost, no-questions-asked transportation back to your hometown hospital or, for that matter, any medical facility you want to get to. For the $225 annual fee ($350 for family membership), you know you'll pay nothing for an on-demand emergency medical evacuation, something that could otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars. (Amazingly, there are no preexisting medical conditions that will exclude you from MedJetAssist membership either.) Lots of other programs offered by credit card companies and health policies promise medical evacuation services. But in my experience, only MedJetAssist lets you make the call.

Tracking Down a Doctor
Need a doctor in a pinch? I no longer expect hotel concierges to have the name of a kindly family physician who'll make a hotel call. Instead, I head for the Physician Finder at WebMD. It will help you find a nearby doctor anywhere you happen to be in the U.S. Of course, you'll have to talk the doc into coming to your hotel room. And the American Dental Association has a Find a Dentist feature that will come in handy on that inevitable day when a filling comes loose at a rubber-chicken banquet.

Because I travel overseas, I also make sure to have a membership in the International Association for Medical Assistance for Travelers. In exchange for a voluntary donation, I.A.M.A.T. will send you a directory of participating physicians, specialists, clinics, and hospitals in 125 countries. The organization reviews the qualifications of health professionals and inspects facilities around the world to make sure members receive good care. Participants also agree to a set fee for a first visit, including such things as a house call to your hotel.

Finding Potions and Lotions
The big chain pharmacies seem to be on every corner—except when you're away from home, with a throbbing pain or in need of some medical necessity or other. BlueCross BlueShield of Missouri has a truly handy pharmacy finder for the United States that does a miraculous job of locating places nearby.

Information Is the Best Medicine
No matter how confident you are in your on-the-road invulnerability, you'd be well advised to know something about the health conditions in the places you're about to visit and what kind of medical facilities you can expect to find there.

I generally start with the Consular Information Sheets produced by the U.S. State Department. There's a dossier for every country on the planet, and each one offers up a section prosaically named "Medical Facilities and Health Information." An example from State's official assessment of Albania: "Limited beyond rudimentary first aid treatment.… Emergency and major medical care requiring surgery and hospital care is inadequate due to lack of specialists."

Armed with those kinds of basic facts, you can cross-check your preparedness against the useful travel information supplied by the Centers for Disease Control. Although  the C.D.C. has been hysterical and shrill recently in its condemnation of the Atlanta lawyer who flew with a treatment-resistant form of tuberculosis, I generally find the organization clear-eyed and measured in its reports, which should cover the details of any possible health crisis that might await you.

Getting Your Shots
If the State Department and C.D.C.'s broadsides haven’t discouraged you from traveling, make sure that you've got your vaccinations and such. There's a growing specialty broadly known as "travel medicine," and that means there's an organization to support it. The International Society of Travel Medicine maintains a list of approved travel clinics that can dispense the proper medical necessities. I'd advise checking with your personal physician before making a trek to a travel-medicine specialist, however.

The Fine Print
Travelers ask me all the time about travel health insurance, and to be honest, the topic leaves me cold. Every policy I've examined is laden with legal double-talk that is especially crafted to guarantee the insurer almost never has to put up or pay off. Instead, I recommend you check your personal and professional health coverage to assess its on-the-road effectiveness and back it up with the MedJetAssist evacuation plan. If you still feel you need travel health coverage, pay a visit to InsureMyTrip.com. It offers quotes and comparisons of packages from 18 providers.