You have about two minutes.
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.
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.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Oh, that's nice.
The first question is, Mr. Mendez, for a guy like Mr. Strahl, how far along are we with these Rosies to replace members of Parliament?
12:35 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
December 6th, 2012 / 12:35 p.m.
Conservative
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
All right.
Here's my first question. I don't know if I caught it, but what is the name of the company that developed the Rosie technology?
12:35 p.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
It's a company in the United States. We have worked with them to develop all the clinical applications, the main clinical applications that we use in Canada. It's called InTouch Health. It's the company that manufactured the robots in California.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
With the development of your particular needs, from the first time you made contact with InTouch Health to the time it was actually in, even in a pilot program, what length of time did it take to develop that technology?
12:35 p.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
We had the first robot in Halifax within a couple of weeks of the first contact. The reason is that we have developed in Halifax a critical mass of individuals and experience in remote surgical applications, where we can operate on somebody at a distance. We already had the baseline.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
I probably missed it, but what did you say is the cost of the robot and the software that goes along with it?
12:35 p.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
The robot is, I think, $140,000 now, and small units are about $25,000.
Just as a disclaimer, I have no association with the company in terms of financial association. My true interest is to bring this technology to where it's needed. I want to make sure that everybody understands that.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
I'm from Ontario. OHIP will cover some costs of machinery, but won't cover other machinery like MRI and CT scanners. Do you have to raise funds through your hospital foundation? Does Health Canada provide the funding for this? Did you do fundraising for the $140,000? Where did that come from?
12:40 p.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
The cost of the robots came from our foundation and from individuals who philanthropically donated the resources to start the robotic program in Halifax.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Professor of Neurosurgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University
The only units are in Atlantic Canada. We have five units in Nova Scotia and the unit in Nain.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm sorry, Mr. Lobb. We have come to the end of our meeting. I've gone over our time because we were supposed to have a business meeting at 12:30. I did some real quick business so we could go over our time, as we were late starting.
I have to thank the witnesses so much. I'm sure we'll see you again. This has been the most amazing presentation. We want to learn even more about it. The whole committee and I thank you so much.
We're now going to suspend for two minutes. We're going to go in camera for the business meeting. I would ask all outside people to leave the room.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
