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 dhkim1@ualberta.ca

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

https://www.dropbox....popularity.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

Hi dhkim1,

I’m not from Alberta so I’m afraid I can’t help you with your survey. However, I have an idea on how much bariatric surgery costs in India. It costs approximately $6000. You can view a more detailed cost here: http://surgerytimes.com/obesity.html. On the other hand, if you are going to do the surgery here in Canada, it will cost around $16000 to $20000. Because of quality, many people are still considering to avail Treatment abroad Canada.

I hope I was able to help you

~Pauline @ http://www.placidway.com/profile/2007/PlacidCanada