I'm trying to help a patient with a very specific type of disease called neural endocrine disease. In neural endocrine disease there are so-called benign cancers with a very small tumour. The tumour produces very powerful hormones that basically debilitate the patient. Patients cannot function. They have diarrhea, day in and day out. That type of disease is a very good template for the future of nuclear medicine and molecular medicine. The reason is that it uses isotopes for the diagnosis, the treatment, and also for the follow-up.
Ontario and the rest of Canada have to send their patients to the U.K., Holland, or Germany to get treatment--this is absurd--at two, three times the price we would be able to provide in Canada. I think the entire system has to be revisited in terms of the isotopes available.
I'm very pleased that Health Canada and the Minister of Health have appointed Sandy McEwan to guide Health Canada through the process of approval. We all have to roll up our sleeves and get to work to make sure we can provide Canadians what they need and deserve in the 21st century.