Evidence of meeting #69 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was see.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
We have quorum right now, and I'm going to begin because we're late starting. I want to thank the witnesses so much for joining us today.
Before we get into the witness presentations, I need to look at two budgets that have not yet passed and which we need to pass.
One is the budget for the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act portion of BillC-45. It's a budget of $1,700. Could I have the committee accept this budget?
11:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
We had our juvenile diabetes witnesses—all those wonderful young people who came and presented. It's a budget of $9,600. Could we pass this budget to pay for their travel?
11:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I was asked to do it now because they are behind. We should have done it before.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
That was my point. They already came and went, so we're approving the budgets afterwards.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Yes, it's okay. We didn't have a chance to do it. On the advice of the clerk, this is how we should do it, so it's fine.
Ladies and gentlemen, we also have a business meeting later. It will be centred on continuing this study in the new year. I think we all agreed that we wanted to do that. We need to have a business meeting to go over everything, so we'll discuss that later on.
The budgets are out of the way, so we're going to start with our presentations.
Dr. Mendez, you're first. Would you start, please.
11:40 a.m.
Dr. Ivar Mendez Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
We will present together as a group. Our presentations are coordinated, so we will do that.
First, thank you very much for inviting us here. What I want to do is show you and open a bit of a window on what I think the future holds for the delivery of health care. We have been working over the past five to six years on a new technology that will allow an expert physician to provide medical care to a citizen anywhere in the country, regardless of the geographical location. This technology involves not only robotics systems, but portable systems that allow a doctor to take care of somebody anywhere.
The first one is what is called the RP-7 robot system. It is a system that can be controlled by any physician who has a computer. The really amazing thing about this system is that is works with regular Internet communications. There is no need for any specific infrastructure. What happens is that the physician who sits at his computer can actually listen to the patient's heartbeat or chest sound wherever they are, and is able not only to diagnose a condition, but to start management in real time.
We have a unique network of these robotic systems in Atlantic Canada. It's unique in the country. We have several robots in Nova Scotia.
For example, I'm a brain surgeon. We only have brain surgeons in Halifax. If you're in Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, or you're in Yarmouth and you have a car accident and develop a blood clot in the brain, you have to be flown to Halifax. It takes several hours in good weather. With this system, the neurosurgeon can see the patient in real time when they arrive at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital and can make a decision in terms of the management of that patient in real time. This is how the system works.
This is the robot here. It's walking the wards in the hospital. You can see two robots. These individuals can be in Toronto, and this individual can be in Saint John, New Brunswick. They can look at a scan and they can collaborate in real time on a patient. I was actually in London, England, to give a lecture, but I did rounds on my patients every morning. Wherever I am in the world, I can see my patients in Halifax every morning and make decisions about their management.
This is Nain, Labrador. Gail Turner and Dr. Michael Jong are going to talk to you about Nain. As you can see, Nain is in the middle of the wonderful Canadian Arctic. There is only one runway. If you have a real problem, they have to send an airplane from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, where Dr. Jong practises, to Nain, to pick you up.
The problem goes beyond that. If you are a young mother who needs a prenatal ultrasound, you need to be sent by plane to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The flight takes a couple of hours, which may not be a big deal. The problem is if the weather is bad, you could be in Happy Valley-Goose Bay for two weeks. Mothers in Nain have a very low rate of prenatal ultrasounds. Maternal mortality rate is high.
This is the nursing station in Nain. There are no doctors in Nain. There are only nurses in a nursing station. Here are the nurses with a patient. There is a doctor with the robot. This is how it looks. The nurses are in Nain. The people of Nain have given this robot the name Rosie, just like the robot on The Jetsons. Rosie can be called whenever Rosie is needed, and Dr. Jong, who is in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and his colleagues can go ahead and take care of a patient.
This is what a doctor sees. He actually can see the nurses. He can see the patient. He can use these peripherals, such as the stethoscope or ophthalmoscope, to diagnose a patient.
What I'm going to present is going to revolutionize the way we practise medicine in the future. We now have mobile systems that work with regular mobile cell phone communications. This is a portable system, and we're testing it in Halifax.
With this system, we were able to receive an ultrasound of an abdomen of a patient who had just had an accident on an ATV. The first responder was a firefighter. The doctor was 300 kilometres away. The doctor directed the firefighter to do an ultrasound of the patient's abdomen so we could detect if the patient had an internal injury. This technology allowed us to start management right away and do the appropriate transportation to the hospital. This is going to cut distance and time. This is the first ultrasound in the world like this. It allows patients to be seen from a remote location by the emergency room physicians or the trauma surgeons. More important, a critically ill patient can be followed in an ambulance.
This is a first in the world. I could be in Halifax, and about 250 kilometres away the ambulance could be going 100 kilometres an hour on the highway. This technology enables me to do an ultrasound of the coronary artery of a patient to see if there's an injury. I can tell the paramedic where to put the probe so I can see the coronary artery. You don't need an expert on the other end; the doctor is in control of the whole situation, and the doctor can direct the paramedic to do the ultrasound. I'd be able to see the coronary artery in real time 250 kilometres away while the patient was being transported to the hospital. That's going to have huge implications in our ability to save lives.
We have a special program in Halifax where we put special electrodes into the brains of patients to control movement disorders, such as dystonia and tremors. We have all these patients who come from all over Canada to Halifax. They may have to fly in from Vancouver. Previously, to follow up, we'd need to have these patients come back to Halifax, because we need to program their computers. Now, we can send this box with the patients, wherever they are. I can beam into their homes, examine them, look at their wounds, and program their internal computers. I can be in the kitchen of an elderly patient, examining him. I can see the wounds perfectly from thousands of kilometres away. I can program the computer of this patient using this device.
I treated a patient with tremors; I had the nurse turn on the computer that I'd implanted in the patient's brain. I did this from Halifax, and the patient was in Newfoundland. You can see how much tremor she has. She can hardly hold the glass. These people are totally disabled because they need somebody to feed them because they can't hold cutlery or anything in their hands.
The computer is in the chest. I'm going to turn the computer on remotely. Here it is. She is moving the table now, and now you can see she's quiet, terribly relieved by that. You can see now she's going to hold this glass in her hand. This is hundreds of kilometres away, and there she is.
We are leaders in the world in this technology, not only in the remote presence but also in controlling these abnormal movements.
Before I ask my colleagues to continue the presentation, I want to invite you to come with me to Halifax. What I'm doing in this room is a first in the world. You have this very powerful firewall, so we cannot connect with your Internet communications, so I've actually connected a cellphone modem here. I'm going to control a robot in Halifax using this cellphone modem. I hope it works.
This is the control station. We're going to go to the hospital in Halifax. This is a regular computer. The only thing that I have here is a control extension. This is Halifax. I'm going to talk to the nurses.
Hello?
11:50 a.m.
A voice
Hi.
11:50 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
Hi, how are you doing?
11:50 a.m.
A voice
Great. How are you?
11:50 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
Very well. I'm here in Ottawa. I'm just going to go around. All right?
11:50 a.m.
A voice
Great. Have fun.
11:50 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
Thank you.
As you can see, nobody pays attention to the robot anymore. I'm going to move the robot. This is me. I'm moving the robot in the hospital in Halifax in real time. I am going to the nursing station. You can see our Christmas tree. I'm just going to show how powerful the cameras of these robots are. It's instant communication using cellular phone connectivity. Let's go and say hello to the nurses.
Hello, how are you doing? I'm just going to go by.
The amazing thing is I'm controlling this robot in the middle of the—
Hi, Theresa, how are you?
11:50 a.m.
A voice
I'm doing well.
11:50 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
I'm just going to increase that.
How are things going in Halifax? How's the weather there?
11:50 a.m.
A voice
It's cold and snowy.
11:50 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
Yes. I'm just going to the MICU for a second. I just want to see the monitor of one of our patients. Would you mind coming with me? I'm just going around you. Thank you.
I'm navigating a very busy nursing station from here in Ottawa. I'm just going to look at the monitor of one of our patients.
Is one of the monitors open there?
I'll just look at our monitors here so you can see.
These are monitors. You can see that none of the patients are connected yet, but you can actually see with total accuracy the lines on the monitor. You can see them moving.
Is one of the monitors on?
11:55 a.m.
A voice
I don't think any of them are on.
11:55 a.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
Good morning. How are you doing?
11:55 a.m.
A voice
I'm doing okay.