Thank you again for the invitation to be here tonight.
Centres of excellence in health care are not a new concept in Canada. They are established already in certain health domains, including cancer, bariatric surgery and mental health. The concept of endometriosis centres of excellence is built on some of the foundational work that others have already done to establish a network of individuals with clinical expertise but also academic research expertise on a topic.
The goal of a centre of excellence is really fourfold. The first domain is to improve the quality of care and the patient experience. The second is to improve population health. The third is to lower the cost of care because it is being done correctly the first time. The fourth is to improve the health care professional experience, which speaks to this purpose of the committee tonight around the retention of talent.
In Canada, being a gynecologist is quite challenging due to a number of barriers. Staying in Canada can be a challenge, particularly for those who want to maintain a strong research interest. There are really not very many centres around the country that are particularly supportive of research in the domain of endometriosis and research in gynecology in general. The centre of excellence would really support that concept as well.
Beyond the actual centre, we would need to build communities of practice around that to support the various regions around the centres of excellence that could be established at academic institutions with a health care affiliation.