That's a really good question. We as an organization really struggled during that time to understand what to do. Our scientific community very much indicated that this probably wasn't going to work. However, at the end of the day, we really had to do the science, to do the good science, to show people that this wasn't going to work, so I don't want to say that millions of dollars were wasted in the sense that it didn't work. Unfortunately, quite a few drug trials become negative too. At times in science you do need to do that work to show that it doesn't work, versus always wanting to look for the positive.
Really, I think what we recognized as an organization, what we learned from it, was the education of the public about what science is, how people can be part of research, and the importance of research investment. What we learned from that Zamboni time frame, shall we say, was that we weren't really communicating the benefits of science and how people can be involved in research. That's really where we changed as an organization, to really involve patients in our research strategy. Prior to that, it was purely the scientific community.
I think that's the shift we're seeing through CIHR through the SPOR initiative. At the same time, like many of the health charities, we recognize now that it's not just the scientific community we have to engage when it comes to research; it's the entire population of stakeholders, including the patients, so they can have a complete understanding of the benefits of research. They can know what's coming down the pipeline, the benefits of clinical trials, what they can do for people, and the investments we need to make.