Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for the work you do each and every day, from looking after Canadians, to the volunteer work you do.
Mr. Walton, as always, thank you for the funds you raise.
We hear you loud and clear. We need a national brain strategy in this country.
Dr. Kleiner-Fisman, thank you for those wonderful recommendations around centres of excellence, interprofessional care, and the specific recommendations that you gave.
I'm sure you all know I'm going to discuss MS. One of my greatest goals was to ensure that those living with MS across this country had the same access, whether it was to clinical trials or to diagnosis and treatment.
Ms. Groetzinger, as you showed, that is not the case. We have Alberta doing one thing, New Brunswick doing another. In fact, because action was not taken at the federal level, we actually have patients travelling in clinical trials already, before the clinical trials start in this country, in Canada as a whole.
I'm just going to bring up the issue of follow-up care. It still remains a problem. There is not a week that goes by that I am not contacted by someone who's been denied follow-up care. It remains a problem.
Ms. Groetzinger, could I ask, was the MS Society involved in the consensus workshop on ultrasound imaging used to diagnose blocked veins in September 2011?