Right now the Canadian Diabetes Association issues world-class clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and management of diabetes in Canada every five years. Those guidelines go out to every single practising physician in Canada. The problem is often that the physicians are very busy or they know their patients have low incomes and can't necessarily afford the drugs they might want to have.
I'm going to drop that line of thinking. I'm sorry.
We know that 50% of people with type 2 diabetes in Canada are not at the recommended target according to the scientific evidence. The physicians are making the best choices they can make, but they are obviously struggling to make it happen as well. We think one solution might be something like academic detailing, and we are talking to other provinces about this. British Columbia had a pilot. In Atlantic Canada, they have academics who sit down with the physicians and explain what the new drugs are, how they work, and what might be best for their patients.
The other thing we recommend is something that both B.C. and Ontario do, which is to have flow sheets for diabetes patients that give them a series of prompts according to our clinical practice guidelines. They ask those questions of their patients every time they come in. They get $100 from the provincial payment system, it goes into administrative data, and it ends up in the national diabetes surveillance system.
From our perspective, it's a beautiful little model to make sure they're managing patients according to clinical practice guidelines.