Health committee  I would like to thank the committee and the federal government for inviting MEDEC to present today. It was very much appreciated by our entire membership. I want to give you a little background on MEDEC and the medical technology industry in Canada. John covered some of it alrea

Health committee  We will be good, Madam Chair. We know that patients are going to need better access to the most effective health care in the system. We understand that in Canada we're facing major issues. We need to find ways to control government spending, but at the same time to produce high

Health committee  Okay, I just want to say one thing.

Health committee  I've actually covered everything.

Health committee  Do you want me to start with the specific question—

Health committee  —or do you want the broader answer first? What's happening is there's a plethora of companies that are developing products, but the ability to get them utilized within the hospital, the hospitals just.... Actually, I was at a conference a while ago where there was a hospital phy

Health committee  The local procurement that goes on is that for many companies it's easier for them to go internationally than to come through Canada.

Health committee  What we have to do is make the process a little more simplistic. We have to build a provision within it for the adoption of new technology.

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  Sure. I visited with a company, and I won't give you the name, but they developed an incredibly innovative product that allows for hearing testing in infants. They can actually tell the child's level of hearing. The FDA.... It sells everywhere else in the world. Because of the s

Health committee  Correct.

Health committee  Correct.

Health committee  When you say local procurement, do you mean within the hospitals?

Health committee  As John was saying, it has to be a disruptive therapy. It has to be something that adds value, where actually you can see something there. There has to be a process set up within the hospitals in terms of their financial systems to allow them to make the decision to actually sp

Health committee  To build on that, there are two parts to the regulations I was talking about. One of them is Health Canada approval. Health Canada is a world-renowned organization in terms of the quality of the work they do, but they are strapped at Health Canada and things end up taking longer