Thank you.
I'll provide a quick update about progress that has been made in determining the relationship between CCSVI and MS.
First, The MS Society is very grateful to the Government of Canada and to all parliamentarians for making CCSVI and MS a health priority. People living with MS need answers they can use to make decisions about their own health. It is heartening to have your support.
On April 18 the Minister of Health announced that there was a fundable applicant for the CCSVI clinical trial. We are anxious for the clinical trial to begin as quickly as possible but understand the need for ethics review by university and hospital ethics boards. The MS Society is looking forward to helping fund the clinical trial as a partner with CIHR once there is final approval. The clinical trial announcement was just one of a number of positive developments to help people with MS obtain the answers that they need. For example, the Government of Saskatchewan has worked with the Albany Medical Center to enable about 86 people with MS to participate in a clinical trial right now. In March, the first group of participants travelled to Albany, New York. This agreement followed an unsuccessful clinical trial process in Saskatchewan last year.
In December 2011, British Columbia launched a CCSVI registry that will follow people who have had the CCSVI procedure outside of Canada. These registrants will be followed for three years to see what happens. In Alberta, the Alberta MS Initiative has been established to learn, through an observational study, about the range of experiences and outcomes following treatment of CCSVI. This is now ongoing. At the federal level, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, is developing a nationwide system to measure and monitor MS progression and the impact of treatment, including CCSVI.
The MS Society continues to ask all governments to ensure that Canadians who undergo treatment for CCSVI outside of Canada have access to necessary post-treatment and follow-up care when they return home. We're pleased that most provincial governments have responded positively. In Ontario the government established an expert committee to develop detailed guidelines for physicians to help them treat patients who have had the CCSVI procedure. The Government of New Brunswick chose a different approach. It set up a program to assist people with the cost of having the CCSVI procedure, offering one-time matching grants of up to $2,500.
In 2009 the MS Society became the first organization in the world to issue a request for research proposals to investigate the relationship between CCSVI and MS. We were joined by our sister organization in the U.S., and we were able to fund seven research projects totaling more than $2.4 million to investigate the possible association of CCSVI and MS.
Funding for the projects began in July 2010 and at the 18-month mark the research teams say they are making good progress. More than 800 people have undergone scanning with various imaging techniques, including the Doppler ultrasound technology used by Dr. Zamboni and his collaborators as well as magnetic resonance studies of the veins, catheter venography, MRI scans of the brain, and clinical measures. More details about the project and the progress researchers are making can be found at our website, CCSVI.ca.
With that, we will conclude our remarks. We look forward to any questions the committee members may have.
Thank you.