Evidence of meeting #67 for Health in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was implants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Professor of Medicine, University of Alberta, As an Individual
I've seen that medical tourism is a big issue in Canada as well. We see the complications.
12:50 p.m.
Professor of Medicine, University of Alberta, As an Individual
Generally, as to your question asking if all these implants are on the market here, the answer is no. They're not.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you.
That's my two and a half minutes.
I'll yield the floor, Mr. Chair.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before asking for documents, I'd like to ask you a quick question, Dr. Morris: will you ask Dr. Cohen Tervaert to send out the science so that he can enlighten your surgeons?
12:50 p.m.
Professor of Medicine, University of Alberta, As an Individual
That's great.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Mr. Chairman, I may have rushed things a little bit earlier. I would like Dr. Greaves to make note of the documents we are asking her to provide.
At the end of the document, there is a Summary of Recommendations by your Scientific Advisory Committee for the February 23, 2021 virtual meeting. It states that the Record of Proceedings is available upon request and asks people to submit their request to the listed email address. We did that over a month ago already, but we have not received anything yet. So I would ask that you send the committee the Record of Proceedings from all of your scientific advisory committee meetings.
Dr. Cohen Tervaert, you told us about a recently published article. I would like to have this article sent to the Committee so that my colleagues and I can review it.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
All right.
Dr. Powlowski was looking for some documents as well, and then we can wrap it up.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Out of this we're going to produce a report that goes to Parliament and which hopefully will be the basis of further government action.
We can take into account both testimony but also what's been submitted. I think it was Dr. Tervaert who mentioned that only 3% of women in the United States who receive implants are part of the registry. If you have any documentation about those numbers and why so few are in the registry please submit it, so it could become part of our report.
Thanks.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
On that, for all of our witnesses, you absolutely have the right to provide any further materials in written form that you think might be helpful to us, in addition to what's been requested. If you think there's anything else we should have, we'd like to have it.
Colleagues, we have about five minutes remaining.
If there's anybody else who wants to pose a question in the last few minutes, please do. We don't have time for a full round. If not, I have two other items I want to raise before we wrap up.
Mr. Thériault, you have the floor.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
I would like to return to my question about independent ongoing training offered to surgeons as compared to that offered by industry.
Is industry tied to many of the symposia offered to surgeons to provide ongoing training, as is the case in the pharmaceutical field, or do surgeons have more autonomy and can participate in scientific symposia that are truly independent of industry interests?
12:55 p.m.
President, Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons
They're completely independent. Our education doesn't come from industry. It comes from other surgeons. It's frowned upon to have industry supporting educational events, but it was not that uncommon in the past. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, it would be common for industry to support educational events, but now there's a very strict line separating education from industry.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Okay.
I opened this door. Let's go with one question each.
We'll start with Dr. Powlowski, then Dr. Kitchen and then Mr. Davies.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I think it was Dr. Tervaert who mentioned breast impact illnesses.
Did you say it was kind of an autonomic neuropathy that was related to inflammation? Is that what it is? Could you please clarify that?
12:55 p.m.
Professor of Medicine, University of Alberta, As an Individual
It's called dysautonomia. It's something in the autonomous nervous system that goes wrong. For instance, a typical issue is your eyes or mouth being very dry. That's something in the autonomous nervous system, and it can be transferred to animal models.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for your presentations. It's greatly appreciated.
My question is actually.... The chair indicated you could submit further information to the committee. I would be interested to know whether you would be prepared to do so and to provide, without going into a great deal of detail, what you think should be collected in that registry—in particular, signs, symptoms and aspects of things you think should be specifically reported, so that data is included.
If you could provide that to the clerk, it would be greatly appreciated.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I just want to give Dr. Greaves a chance for the last word.
Sometimes, when you're the witness online, you don't get the same presence. I want to give you the last minute or so to leave us with your thoughts.
12:55 p.m.
Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee on Health Products for Women
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I mentioned a couple of times that I think we have omitted paying any attention to the motivations for requesting implants among patients, whether cosmetic or reconstruction. I think this is a big omission that could go some way to improving the general health of women in Canada and those requiring or requesting implants. Pay some attention to those motivations, and then do some education around them. It's not clear, but some of those motivations are around body image—predominantly the body-image pressures girls and women face that lead to cosmetic requests.
With respect to reconstruction, we know from some cancer survivors that they face the question of whether or not they should reconstruct. The pros and cons of doing that are often related to body-image issues, as well. There's an entire area here that I haven't heard a lot about in research—which was not even discussed today—and that could go a long way to reducing the use of implants.
You heard one of the other witnesses say he would not recommend this to his daughter. I certainly wouldn't recommend this device to anyone I know. The best breast implant is probably one that is avoided. I think we have an obligation to begin to think about that as well and to collect some data on motivations. Then, from those in a registry who have had implants, collect data on whether or not their resulting mental and physical symptoms are improved or not improved.
Those would be some of my final comments. Thank you.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Thank you, Dr. Greaves.
I'd like to thank our witnesses for being with us here today. The depth of their experience and expertise is very clear, and the information they provided will undoubtedly be valuable to us as we start to put together some recommendations from here, going forward.
Thank you for taking the time and for being so patient and thorough in your answers.
I have two items before we adjourn.
Colleagues, later today, we will receive documents from witnesses who appeared for the study of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. These will need to be translated, so there will be a delay. We will ask the translation bureau to prioritize this request so that we have it back as soon as possible.
On another note, it is with some regret that I have to inform you our illustrious analyst Sarah Dodsworth is going to be leaving us. She's not going far, but she will no longer be attending committee meetings and providing the excellent service we have enjoyed during her tenure. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing her all the best in her new responsibilities within the Library of Parliament.
1 p.m.
Voices
Hear, hear!