Research survey on bariatric surgery medical tourism in Alberta

Greetings,

My name is David and I am a medical research student in the department of surgery at the University of Alberta, Canada working with Dr. Daniel Birch in general surgery.

The Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery (CAMIS) is conducting a research study to estimate the financial healthcare consequences that may occur when Alberta residents seek bariatric surgery in another province or country (known as medical tourism). We are surveying all Alberta residents who had bariatric surgery outside of Alberta. Your input will help us to assess their costs to the healthcare system. The link to our 5-minute survey can be found here: 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JCF3Q95

(Please copy and paste the above link to the address bar of your browser and press enter to access the survey.)

Your input is very important to us, will be kept strictly confidential, and will be used only for the purposes of research for this project. You are consenting to participate in this study by completing this survey.

If you have any questions or would prefer to complete a paper survey, please call us at 780-735-6733 or email me at [email protected]

For detailed information about the project, please refer to the participant information sheet here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xi0u2hc162snue/Information%20shee t%20popularity.docx

(Please copy and paste the above link to the address bar of your browser and press enter to access the information sheet.)

 

Thank you for your participation!

 

Sincerely,

David H Kim, Bsc.

Research Student

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery

University of Alberta

10240 Kingsway Ave NW, Edmonton Alberta, T5H3V9

I forgot to mention that this post has been approved by Tammy, the Editor-In-Chief of Obesityhelp.com

Don't you think that the fact that Dr Birch is paid to preform bariatric surgery in Edmonton constitutes a huge conflict of interest? I would welcome this study if it were performed independent of the current surgeons and clinics involved in bariatric surgery in Alberta. Did this actually make it past the ethics panel?

Dr. Kim:

I think this is a fabulous idea.  As I had my bariatric surgery here with Dr. Birch I am not able to complete the survey but I would be quite interested in the results.  Will the outcome be published anywhere?

Velma:

As Dr. Birch is the Scientific Director of CAMIS, it is only natural that he is the overseer of this research project.  As well, if you read the research description you should of noticed that Dr. deGara is a part of the project as well.  Complications with any surgery are natural - you know most of my story I think - but when you go out of country and have complications, it is hard for the Doctors here to fix the issue because they didn't perform the original surgery so they don't know what was done and sometimes the patient's file is incomplete when sent up here to Canada.  

For AHS to get these results and hopefully notice the weight of the bariatric surgery on the healthcare system, hopefully more OR slots can be opened and more surgeries be performed here. If so, that should help with the wait times making people know that the wait here outweighs the risk of going out of country for such a major surgery...that is my opinion.  There is only four surgeons in Edmonton that offer bariatric surgery with conjunction with The Weight Wise Clinic - Dr. Birch, Dr. deGara, Dr. Davey and finally Dr. Karmali.  I am not seeing why you think there is a conflict of interest for Dr. Birch to be the overseer of this research.  

Just my 5 cents.

Well, here is hoping I have nothing to contribute to the data.

Reads to me that they are asking for input from Albertans who have surgery outside of Alberta, regardless of if they have a smooth experience or complications.

Yes, it does. I filled it in - no problems, no complications. Barry was sleeved 2 weeks ago - no pain, no problems, and the stinker is already down 15#. Humph.

I did comment that I figure I saved Alberta Health a bundle, since they'll only be paying me back about $2000. That's a lot less than it costs to have the surgery here, and if a person uses a bit of common sense in selecting their surgeon and following the post surgery diet there's no reason to expect more complications than if the surgery is done here.

I'd love to see more self-pay options within Canada. I'd have had my surgery within Canada if there'd been a reasonable option available. AHC limits surgery to the sickest by using their staging criteria, which is all well and good, but the "less sick" who want surgery to increase their quality of life should have options, and not be refused help until they're "sick enough." My life is SO much better now, and I think that's a perfectly valid reason to have WLS.

Hi Velma44,

Thank you for your inquiry. In Royal Alex hospital, Edmonton, Dr. Birch, Dr. de Gara and other bariatric surgeons have met with many patients with complications from their out-of-province bariatric surgery. The treatments for the complication can be as simple as prescribing medications to treat an ulcer, or as extensive as having many, many revisional operations with over 100 days of hospital stay. 



Dr. Birch, Dr. de Gara and other bariatric surgeons in RAH believe that by conducting this study, we will be able to provide useful information to the healthcare decision makers about the cost resulting from medical tourism. This would allow decreased wait times, more OR slots, etc. for bariatric surgery in Alberta. Ms. Adrianna O. has summed it up well from the post above.

While there are Alberta residents who had successful bariatric surgery outside of Alberta, there are those that end up with complications as well. One of the goals of this study is to get an estimated number of Alberta residents who had bariatric surgery outside of Alberta, both with and without complications.

Also, we have an ethics approval for this study. You may call the UofA research ethics office 780-492-2615 to confirm.

To Adrianna O.
Thank you for your post. It pretty much sums up why we are doing this research. After the data is collected, analyzed, it will be published as a journal article.

Dr Kim

I will happily participate in this study, as I believe there is a serious gap in our health care system, however I fear that the existing prejudice against "medical tourism" will affect the way this survey is used.
Anecdotal information would seem to suggest that our surgeries generate as many complications as those performed in any legitimate hospital. I will be interested to see if the statistics generated by this study reflect differently.
I hope that fear of the prejudice that comes from being a "medical tourist" doesn't keep people from participating in this study as it is long overdue.

Hi Velma 44,

Bariatric surgeries performed at home do indeed generate complications. But Dr. Birch is concerned about medical tourism because he sees many cases of patients who had bariatric surgery outside of Alberta with complications that are comparable to standards. 

The goal of this project is just to get an estimate of how many patients seek bariatric surgery via medical tourism in Alberta. The use of this information will not be affected by the prejudice on medical tourism, but will be to fulfill the project’s purpose. Also, the survey is anonymous and confidential so survey respondents will not be affected by how they respond.

Medical tourism is indeed a controversy and many prejudices arise against it, mainly due to subjective reasoning and the lack of objective research outcomes. We hope to lessen the prejudices of medical tourism and we believe that this project is a step forward in that process."