A new website created by the SFU Medical Research Group aims to expose the pros and cons of the medical tourism industry by sharing stories of people who have sought health care abroad.

The site, MedicalTourismAndMe.com, was created by Jeremy Snyder, associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, in collaboration with geography professor, Valorie Crooks, as well as several other SFU master’s students and PhD candidates.

Canadian citizens enjoy the luxury of a socialized health care system; the tax dollars that people contribute to health care make treatment available to all who have need of it. One downside to the system, however, is the time people spend waiting to receive proper treatment. 

Crooks explained that some Canadians wait years for simple surgeries to erase chronic pain, or experience rushed diagnoses due to an overload of patients, making foreign health care an attractive option for some.

This is where medical tourism comes into play. Medical tourism is essentially the act of travelling to another country to receive health care due to cost or efficiency issues in one’s home country. 

MedicalTourismAndMe shares a variety of different stories from those who have procured health care abroad. Some are positive — getting approval from their Canadian physician and experiencing hospitals that were more like five star resorts — while others reveal a darker side to the industry. 

Crooks told The Peak that, before 2009, there was barely any existing research on this practice, which is becoming more common as rumors spread of spa-like hospitals in Asian and Central American countries.

After failing to find much academic research on the subject in preparation for a lecture, Crooks decided to take action and pursue medical tourism as a course of study. “It is a highly geographic emerging global health services practice, and thus as a health geographer I believed that I could make an important contribution to our knowledge about medical tourism,” said Crooks.

Crooks detailed some of the drawbacks to medical tourism, including not allowing enough recovery time due to being unable to afford the expense of staying in another country, as well as the guilt that could come with receiving five star health care in nations affected by poverty. 

Crooks was drawn to the fact that these injustices are so often glossed over, saying, “I have worked to establish the SFU Medical Tourism Research Group as the global leader in producing research-based insights into the ethical, equity, and safety issues associated with medical tourism.”

Snyder, a team member and developer of the website, said, “During our research, we learned that [those considering medical tourism] are typically unaware of many of the safety and ethical issues related to medical tourism.” When developing the website, he also noted that many of the sources of information for prospective medical tourists are biased at best. 

MedicalTourismAndMe uses personal stories rather than hard facts as a way to convey what researchers feel is a more honest point of view. The developers of the site decided that relaying stories from former medical tourists was one of the best ways to connect potential tourists with the social, ethical, and medical impacts of receiving private health care in other countries.

While the team continues to build the website, they are unsure as to what the future of this practice may be. “Industry reports suggest that medical tourism is growing. [However,] I have learned to question all numbers I see about medical tourism for a number of reasons. Because of this, it is difficult to articulate specific future impacts,” said Crooks.