Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will keep my comments very brief and it will be mainly a view from the front line.
I'm the chief of psychiatry at the Royal Ottawa, one of the academic health science centres in Ontario and part of HealthCareCAN across Canada.
My work on the ground is in large part telemedicine-based. I work in the operational stress injury clinic, giving support to veterans, RCMP, and members in the forces who are transitioning. What we found at our place is that the field is really ready to adopt some of the newer technologies.
I'll speak specifically about telemedicine where we've been able to get out of our hospital per se and get into all areas of eastern Ontario, providing clinics to people to have access to psychiatry. Not only is there access to psychiatry, but there is also access to nurses, psychologists, social workers, and addictions specialists. I think in many ways the field is really ready to adopt some of the technologies to outreach to patients and families in a collaborative and interdisciplinary way. We have a variety of things we can do not only one-on-one care but group care. Aftercare can be done in groups via telemedicine, a fascinating approach and very well liked by patients. They appreciate the access.
What will be coming, and we're experimenting with it now, is outreaching straight into the patient's home. We know that's happening for other chronic diseases, but mental health will surely follow. I think that will be a huge convenience to patients in the home. We know cardiology can be done pretty much in the home with data transmitted to health science centres and cardiologists. It's the same thing for dermatology. Wait times have decreased substantially.
Last, as a final example, we even do mental health review boards up to Yukon and Nunavut, providing access for people with mental health issues to the care and appropriate judicial safeties that they need, right from Ottawa, as opposed to flying people to the farther reaches of the north.
I think we have a lot of potential and I look forward to any discussion on it.
Thank you.