On Medical Tourism / Valorie Crooks

Architecture Off-Centre

Medical tourism is a rapidly growing industry that has emerged out of people’s need to travel across country borders to access medical treatments and procedures. In order to understand this global movement, we need to understand the reason for travel, the destinations that attract individuals and the web of factors that shape this global industry.

Dr. Valorie Crooks is a health geographer who specializes in health services research. She is a Professor at Simon Fraser University where she also holds a Canada Research Chair and currently serves as Associate Vice-President, Research. For more than a decade she has been qualitatively studying the ethical and equity impacts of medical tourism. This work has taken her to countries as diverse as India, Mongolia, Jamaica, Colombia, Barbados, St. Lucia, Cayman Islands, Guatemala, Mexico, South Korea, and Belize.

More on Dr. Crooks: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/about/our-people/profiles/Valorie-Crooks.html