Good morning. Thank you very much. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak before you.
By way of background, I'm a past president of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. My tenure in those roles coincided with the significant increase in the number of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma cases in Canada, which our members were seeing clinically. At that time, there was a significant gap between the numbers that Health Canada had and that our members were seeing in clinical practice.
We started tracking those numbers voluntarily and created a database that our societies still maintain. I started communications with Health Canada at that time to try to get a better sense of—specifically at that time—breast implant ALCL.
I had multiple conversations with them. This was around 2016 or 2017. At that time, it was our societies' recommendation that there be a breast implant registry in Canada so that we would have better information for an event like ALCL. Unfortunately, the communication that was given back to us was that it was not the mandate of Health Canada. It seemed a bit unusual to us that in the organization tasked with improving the safety of medical devices it was not within their mandate to continue to track those devices in the long term.
Certainly, there already exist medical device registries in Canada. The largest one is the orthopaedic joint registry, which is managed by CIHI. Our organizations have approached CIHI in the past—again, without any success.
We're the only G7 country that does not have a breast implant registry, which is concerning.
Subsequently, I think because of the work we did, I've been asked to speak internationally on medical device registries. I've provided you a copy of one of those talks. There's very good, clear evidence about the value of medical device registries, and of breast implant registries in particular, and clear guidelines as to what constitutes an effective registry. That work has been done. It doesn't have to be duplicated. I'm happy to answer questions about what data needs to be collected.
As somebody who treats women both with reconstructive breast implants and with aesthetic breast implants, it's my sincere personal belief that the time is here for a breast implant registry in Canada, and I believe it's the belief of our professional organizations as well. It would allow us to have more accurate information to give to Canadian women regarding the risks and benefits of these devices, and it also would allow the opportunity to track them in the long term if events like anaplastic large cell lymphoma develop in the future. We'd have a way of tracking those patients and providing them accurate information.
Thank you.