In fact, I have done the whole presentation. I may be speaking a little too fast. No?
Okay, I have time. That's perfect.
I'll present and we will share the questions. So I'm okay with my time.
For us, as nurses in the group, and of course we have alliances with people in computer engineering and software engineering at the Polytechnique Montréal, it was important to offer virtual nursing intervention as a tool that supplements a real consultation with a nurse, which is done in the care setting when the person visits the hospital, or in another setting, three or four times a year. We wanted to provide them with access to a real-time, 24/7 service when they needed it. We see it somewhat as an extension of the nurse's role, which is now being played virtually.
That tells you a little about our innovation practices. You have the portfolio in front of you. If there are questions, we will be pleased to answer them. I will conclude with a few thoughts about the issues, concerns and recommendations relating to the development of ICT-assisted health care interventions.
The development process is very onerous. It calls for the marriage of some unusual teams. Often, this means health care professionals working with computer science and media teams. We try to pool our expertise to produce a product that is innovative but will benefit the clientele. In this respect, computer science plays a real supporting role for the solutions we propose.
Our concern is to a large extent related to introduction. We develop. But how will these innovative practices be introduced? How are we going to build bridges between the different computer systems in the network? How can we make sure that these health care practices mature? What strategies can be put in place to support them in harnessing these new technologies? Introducing them into health care settings prompts a lot of questions for us: how do we promote access to the technologies among the most disadvantaged groups in our society?
I will conclude with a few recommendations. The development of health care technologies is a field where there are few guideposts. Researchers are laying the groundwork at present. This is a field that should have more guidelines and mechanisms to enable researchers, clinicians and industry to be closer partners and make more rapid advances.
As well, there is definitely a need for investment to support the professionals in harnessing and introducing these technologies. They are always very interested and see these technologies as tools to empower their clientele, but they never have the budgets to introduce the technologies and train their personnel.
I am also very happy to see that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have now opened a new research program that supports these innovative clinical practices, the eHealth Innovations program.
Thank you.