Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to draw to the attention of the committee that the European Brain Council is advocating that 2013 be declared the “year of the brain”. This would line up well with the national population health study of neurological conditions, ending March 2013. Canada will also be hosting the World Parkinson Congress in October 2013. We'll have 4,000 researchers coming. Maybe the committee could recommend that Canada also declare 2013 the “year of the brain”.
I will now pick up on ALS and veterans. This is something I've been doing a lot of thinking about. Perhaps, Mr. Cameron, I can ask you if it would be worth our identifying and contacting veterans with ALS--including those whose claims for ALS were previously denied--through either direct mailings or other outreach programs.
I think we absolutely need a national ALS registry, which I believe you're working on, because we have to identify veterans with the disease regardless of when they served. We need to track their health status. It's probably best to do this through an initial telephone interview, covering their health and military service, and perhaps twice-yearly interviews thereafter, and ensuring research regarding the different types of treatment in order to better support veterans with ALS.
I wonder if you could comment on that, please.