Thank you very much, Madam Chairperson.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. Today is actually the first meeting of a new study we're beginning, so you kicked it off for us. We're beginning to get into this whole issue, which I think is pretty huge, in terms of innovation and technology in the health care system. The questions I have are fairly broad. I'm hoping there are issues we will explore further as we get into our study. All of you made very good presentations. It gives us the sense of what your department and agencies are working on. I have the feeling that great attention is paid to safety issues, monitoring, and evaluation.
What bodies, whether federal or provincial, are overseeing the impact of these new technologies? There must be an impact on human health resources. If there are new technologies coming in, that may require different kinds of expertise in various facilities. Who monitors that? Who responds to that?
The other part of that is accessibility. You have a whole menu of technologies coming in, and various research things are emerging. How do we ensure under the principles of the Canada Health Act there is even application across the country and that cherry-picking is not involved? For example, province X can afford this and, therefore, it gets some new technology and another one doesn't. There is an issue here of health equity. There are many players, and you're just at the federal level. It's not clear to me, with all the players involved, who keeps an eye on the bigger picture in terms of our health care system.
Could you address that question? Is anybody doing that, and if not, where are the gaps and what should we be doing?