Thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate the review of this very important issue and the enthusiasm that Mr. Alvarez brings to the work he's doing.
This is near and dear to my heart, and within our region we've just made incredible progress, from the X-rays, by which you can clear people in a rural emergency and they don't have to transfer to larger communities, to chronic disease toolkits.
In Williams Lake right now, they have a nurse. The thoracic surgeon in Kelowna is reviewing.... Through telemedicine, the thoracic surgeons are seeing them, doing consultations. In another community, again funded by Health Infoway, the congestive heart failure patients are being sent home and are being monitored through some home devices. They're having a huge impact upon stays.
I have a few questions, and my first one is this. I understand that public health is looking at a Canadian-wide system—Panorama, is it? What is Health Infoway's role in that? How, with this current H1N1, would it have made a difference—how, and what difference?
Mr. Alvarez, could you respond?