Health committee  Thank you. That's a challenging question. I'm tempted to say, "Just have people talk to each other", but that's probably not something you want to put in your report. I don't have any other examples I could provide you with at this moment.

Health committee  I'm hoping that our Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network will actually be able to provide some of those opportunities around developing best practices as part of our knowledge translation activities. I hope that as we go forward in doing this, both as research and as a knowledge translation activity, we will be able to share it widely, at both a federal and a jurisdictional level.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I absolutely agree that we could have some sort of electronic ability to capture that. Again, an advance care plan, structured right, in the right way, may actually capture some of that information—a record of people who've had multiple treatments, for whom really there are no more treatments, and for whom any further attempts at life-sustaining or life-lengthening therapies are not worthwhile.

Health committee  Thank you. I think we have a dire need for hospice care in Canada. That isn't available. Many people end up in acute-care settings because there's no place for them to go. Home might be difficult for a whole lot of reasons. Some other sort of facility to provide care for people who do not need high-tech care is really important.

Health committee  Thank you. The Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network is slightly different from the Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network. They're two separate things. The only provinces it's not in are P.E.I., New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan at the moment, and the territories.

Health committee  I'd be pleased to give my answer. This network has been funded by the Public Health Agency since 2008. Currently we have about 420 physicians contributing data on almost a half a million patients over every three months, so that we can now follow eight different chronic diseases over time and be able to report back around surveillance.

Health committee  Thank you. There are opportunities for advance care planning, as an example, and to use technology to enhance that. We're not talking about doing it necessarily when people enter hospital but even before, as was suggested, as part of their routine care that advance care planning would be discussed.

Health committee  Thank you. There are bold attempts by physicians and nurses and others to ask that question if they have the opportunity, but it is by no means routine. Of course the concern is that elderly persons may get into hospital but be in a state in which they can't answer. They may or may not have a power of attorney, so health professionals are left in a situation in which they actually have to make the decision on the spot.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. I guess I need to understand a little bit more about new technologies that would improve quality of life. Certainly there are technologies that improve quality of life by allowing people to recover faster, if they're going to recover. In terms of the end of life, though, in fact, there are new technologies that probably decrease quality of life, rather than increase quality of life, because what happens is that people with a terminal illness or who may have a few weeks to live, have some technology applied to them that in fact results in prolongation of life in a very poor state.

Health committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair and everyone. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address the committee today about the use of technology in the management of people with chronic disease. l am a family doctor and the interim scientific director of the Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network—that's TVN.