Thank you.
When my mother was discharged from the hospital in early January, she was discharged with a piece of paper that contained the names of over 25 medications. Some she was to continue, some she was to stop, and some she was to start. There was a mistake, which I picked up. The pharmacist didn't know; it was on the piece of paper. Once they had plugged all the information into the pharmacist's computer, a drug interaction showed up.
We have the tools to do this; we're just not communicating. My mother has more than one physician—she has five physicians. Connecting this information is going to be very key to what we can do from now on.
Concerning your comment on the seriousness of the adverse drug reaction, the example we proposed was for a mild to moderate drug reaction. If somebody at the other end, at Health Canada, is monitoring the reports coming in through the electronic medical record, they have predetermined a number: if the severity is this, one is enough to get some feedback; if it's not, 100 may be enough.
Somebody has to be doing this work at the receiving end of the reports. Then we'll have a system in place that will be useful, educational, and used. That's where the “mandatory” may not be so important.