Health committee  No, it's not, and that's one of the challenges. When we say “monitoring antibiotic use” in this country, we might know how many prescriptions are prescribed or how many units are bought by a pharmacy, but we don't know what those antibiotics are used for, to be honest. It's a bit of a black hole.

Health committee  Sorry; I might have gotten a bit off track. I think pharmacists can certainly help in that way to make sure that use is appropriate. I think your other question was around general approaches to improving prescribing. I think the electronic medical records with cues embedded in there could go a great way to assisting in prescribing.

Health committee  I will clarify that those numbers are for antibiotic prescriptions. A lot of that comes, as you say, as a result of using antibiotics for viral infections. They are not going to respond. Those statistics come from different studies, and studies study slightly different things.

Health committee  Pharmacists certainly have a role. We tell pharmacists when they are students that it's part of their job to look at whether this is the best drug for this particular patient. If they feel it's not, then it's their responsibility to have a conversation with the prescriber. One of the pieces of information that pharmacists are often missing is the indication, the actual reason.

Health committee  With respect to resistance, certainly we want pharmacists to know what the indication for the antibiotic is so that they can also make a decision about whether it is the best choice for that particular patient in that situation. There's always the option of having a conversation with the prescriber about that.

Health committee  Does that answer your question?

Health committee  I'll qualify this by saying that my area is really about appropriate antibiotic use. My area of expertise isn't really in prevention, but the one big thing we can all do is wash our hands. Handwashing is critical. In some scenarios, we have to isolate patients to prevent the spread of infection from one patient to another.

Health committee  I believe that education is a very important strategy. It's going to be our foundation, but tools to help support clinicians—and I don't think it's just physicians, but all prescribers—are important as well. Some of those tools are diagnostic, but other tools include strategies to make patients feel better when they're sick with viral infections, for example.

Health committee  Sorry, I'm not sure that—

Health committee  Okay. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you very much for inviting me to be a witness and to participate in this very important discussion. As you know, my name is Yvonne Shevchuk. I'm an educator within the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, but I'm also a licensed pharmacist.