An Exploration of Medical Tourism

Welcome to "Medical Tourism" a web-based survey that seeks to identify some of the characteristics of individuals who travel out of the country for a medical procedure. Before taking part in this study, please read the consent form below and click on the "I Agree" button at the bottom of the page if you understand the statements and freely consent to participate in the study.

Consent Form

This study involves a web-based survey designed to collect information about medical tourists. The study is being conducted by Professor Robert S. Bristow of Westfield State College, Massachusetts, USA and Professor Wen-Tsann Yang of Feng-Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan. It has been approved by the Westfield State College Institutional Review Board. You will not be at physical or psychological risk and should experience no discomfort resulting from answering the questionnaire.

Participation in the survey typically takes 5-10 minutes and is strictly anonymous. Participants begin by answering a series of questions about their travel abroad for a medical procedure (or a planned experience), then some general travel questions, next a series of statements are presented and we ask if you agree with them or not and finally we conclude with a few basic questions on your demographic characteristics.

All responses are treated as confidential, and in no situation will responses from individual participants be identified. Rather, all data will be pooled and published in aggregate form only. Participants should be aware that while we are utilizing a professional surveying website the survey is not being run from a secure “https” server of the kind typically used to handle credit card transactions, so there is a very small possibility that responses could be viewed by unauthorized third parties (e.g., computer hackers). Once the survey is completed, all data will be deleted from the server.

There are no known risks by taking this survey. The individual is free to not answer any question; although we would encourage you to answer all that you feel comfortable with.

A complete summary of the survey responses will be published on the website (http://www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism/). Other visitors to this web site are welcome to complete the study, although all must acknowledge this Informed Consent. Participation is voluntary.

If participants have further questions about this study or their rights, or if they wish to lodge a complaint or concern, they may contact the principal investigator, Professor Robert S. Bristow at 413-572-5215 or Westfield State College’s Institutional Review Board.

If you are 18 years of age or older, understand the statements above, and freely consent to participate in the study, click on the "I Agree" button to begin the survey (on SurveyMonkey.Com).

I Agree (take me to the survey)

If you have difficulty, Copy and Paste this link into your browser:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y73YYN2

Page updated 10 Feb 2010