Valorie Crooks

Dr. Valorie Crooks is a health geographer who specializes in health services research. She is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. In 2009, she founded the SFU Medical Tourism Research Group (www.sfu.ca/medicaltourism).

Crooks holds a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award to support her medical tourism research. She has received significant research operating funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study medical tourism and travels extensively to destination countries (e.g. Jamaica, Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Barbados, Cayman Islands) in order to gain on-the-ground insight into this mobile and globalizing health services practice.

While medical tourism serves as the focus of her research program, she is also actively involved in studies on primary health care, rural palliative care, and the lived experience of chronic illness.

Recent Publications

Crooks VA, Turner L, Cohen IG, Bristeir J, Snyder J, Casey V, Whitmore R. Ethical and legal implications of the risks of medical tourism for patients: a qualitative study of Canadian health and safety representatives’ perspectives. BMJ Open. 2013 Feb 8;3(2). pii: e002302. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002302. Print 2013. (PubMed abstract)

Crooks VA, Cameron K, Chouinard V, Johnston R, Snyder J, Casey V. Use of medical tourism for hip and knee surgery in osteoarthritis: a qualitative examination of distinctive attitudinal characteristics among Canadian patients. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012 Nov 21;12:417. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-12-417. (PubMed abstract)

Crooks VA, Snyder J. Medical tourism: what Canadian family physicians need to know. Can Fam Physician. 2011 May;57(5):527-9, e151-3. (PubMed abstract)

Crooks VA, Turner L, Snyder J, Johnston R, Kingsbury P. Promoting medical tourism to India: messages, images, and the marketing of international patient travel. Soc Sci Med. 2011 Mar;72(5):726-32. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.12.022. Epub 2011 Jan 26. (PubMed abstract)

Crooks VA, Kingsbury P, Snyder J, Johnston R. What is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism? A scoping review. BMC Health Serv Res. 2010 Sep 8;10:266. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-10-266. (PubMed abstract)