Grant: CIHR Journalism Award

The practice of international travel for surgery has become well-recognized, especially with the wave of MS patients seeking unproven vein-widening treatment. However, few reports examine the risks and repercussions of this rapidly expanding multi-billion dollar industry. A team at Simon Fraser University are among researchers exploring these issues in numerous countries. Studies so far by the SFU Medical Tourism Research Group, led by Dr. Jeremy Snyder, include exploration of the experiences and motivations of Canadian patients and the brokers who facilitate their arrangements abroad. The SFU team also traveled to countries including India and Barbados to study the impact of medical tourism in the destination countries and their health care system. Research by the SFU team and other investigators in the U.S. and India, among other locations, raise concerns about lack of regulation and monitoring of the industry, infectious diseases, serious medical complications and deaths related to medical tourism, burdens on the health care systems in the home countries of medical tourism consumers and bleeding of health services and expertise in the MT provider countries from public health care to elite private institutions. This project will report on the concerns but also the evidence of benefits and opportunity for health consumers and the health care system. In part this project will look at potential costs and benefits of the industry for British Columbia, where government officials have expressed interest in becoming a medical tourism destination.