Mr. Chair, I thank you and the committee for having us today. Gilles and I will be sharing the presentation. I'll tell you a little bit about who we are.
The Canadian Association of Radiologists represents about 2,800 radiologists from coast to coast who are dedicated to medical imaging excellence around the country. Today we're going to talk somewhat about the lessons learned through the COVID-19 crisis, where we were going in, where we are coming out, the lessons learned, and our recommendations/asks, at the end. I may have met some of you before, through some of our days on the Hill, within the last few years. Some of this information we're sharing on lessons learned comes from the Conference Board of Canada's report, reported a year or so ago, that many of you have received through our national organization.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with radiology, we're the physicians who are trained for about 15 years post-secondary and who diagnose and perform CAT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds. We do interventional procedures, more recently stroke events, treatment for acute stroke presentation, cancer treatment of ablating tumours, and a number of complex procedures that occur in hospitals, community and radiology alike. We also do other things: broken bones in emergency rooms, lower back pain with an MRI, and things like that. Many of you have probably used a radiologist or had interaction with a radiologist.
That's who we are. Gilles will now talk a little bit about our experience so far, and I will come back at the end.
Gilles, it's yours from here.