Health committee  The only units are in Atlantic Canada. We have five units in Nova Scotia and the unit in Nain.

Health committee  The cost of the robots came from our foundation and from individuals who philanthropically donated the resources to start the robotic program in Halifax.

Health committee  Those are the potential barriers in the future, issues that have to do with medical legal issues. For example, if you are in Halifax and you are taking care of a patient in Toronto, who is responsible? Is it you or someone else? Of course there is also the issue of remuneration.

Health committee  That's exactly what it is. There are no neurosurgeons on Prince Edward Island. If you have a brain tumour, you have to go to Halifax. A robot that would be able to access a specialist in real time, wherever they are, should be in that emergency room in Prince Edward Island. I t

Health committee  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.

Health committee  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 basel

Health committee  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 understa

Health committee  Maybe I'll start, and then Dr. Jong can continue. The barriers to implementation of this technology are not technological barriers. The barriers have to do with such issues as jurisdiction, remuneration, competing interests, and a lack of policies that would allow the use of thi

Health committee  Yes, as I said before, we have a lot of experience in this. The really interesting thing is that one of the portable systems I showed you, that works with cellular phone connectivity, can be bought by saving two trips on a plane. For example, the robot in Halifax that we sent to

Health committee  That's a very important question. The first thing I should tell you is that the robot is the size of a human being. It is roughly the same shape, width, and height of a human being. That allows the operator to know intuitively where the robot can or cannot go. The controls are s

Health committee  There are two programs in the country. The first is the network of robots we have in Nova Scotia. They're used for specialized care in brain surgery. Then there is the primary care system in Labrador where the hospital in Happy Valley-Goose Bay takes care of the remote community

Health committee  Good morning. How are you doing?

Health committee  Good to see you. I'm going to stop the demonstration here and let Michael come. I will disconnect here, Theresa. Thank you very much. You can see, we have been in Halifax. I talked to the nurses. I was able to see my patients. You can imagine the potential of this. Of course th

Health committee  I'm just going to increase that. How are things going in Halifax? How's the weather there?

Health committee  Hi, how are you doing?