Evidence of meeting #5 for Veterans Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being succinct in your comments.
We're going to get going right away into the first round of questions. Up first, I believe we have MP Seeback for six minutes.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Quickly, I just wanted to ask my first question to Robert.
Robert, my understanding from your testimony today is that you were medically discharged, yet you still have to go through a process and fight for your disability benefits. Am I correct in that?
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I don't even know what to say to that. You're being told you're medically unfit, but then you have to wait 52 weeks, or who knows how long, in order to receive your benefits. I apologize for that on behalf of Canadians.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I want to talk to Mr. Heilman briefly.
Is the project you're talking about, with the digitization of records, part of the increasing processing of the backlog that the minister has talked about? He's been talking about digital solutions as if it's going to make a big difference in dealing with the backlog. Is what you talked about today the same project that the minister was talking about?
4:30 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
Personally, I can't speak to what the minister was talking about.
What I can talk to you about are the efforts we've undertaken so far to close the gap. Recently—well, last year—we actually extended for the first time ever the Canadian Forces health information system directly onto the desktops of six VAC adjudicators in Charlottetown, so they would be able to directly access a member's medical history. What that did was take away the requirement for us to go digging in our electronic system for health information to send to VAC.
What that didn't help was the fact that most of our military members still have a portion of their health record on paper. What we have undertaken now is that, when a member requests their health record, we will digitize it at the base and upload it into the Canadian Forces health information system. This means VAC will be able to access it electronically and we won't have to rely on the mail system anymore to mail files from bases to Ottawa, and then from Ottawa to Veterans Affairs.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Okay. I'm not aware of any other project that the minister could be referring to and the fact that you're testifying today makes me assume that this is the project he was talking about, so I have a couple of questions about that.
How long will it be until this digitization project you're undertaking is completed? Do you have an internal estimate?
4:30 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
I don't have an estimate. The onus right now is on Veterans Affairs to set the conditions at each of their locations, along with National Defence, to get the National Defence networks located in the locations where Veterans Affairs have their adjudicators. We are working jointly to establish National Defence networks in those locations. We've done a great deal of work in Charlottetown. We sent them out computers that are prepared and ready to go to access the National Defence network, CFHIS. We took a team out to Veterans Affairs in Charlottetown and undertook at-elbow training with the initial group of adjudicators.
We are well on our way, but in order to get a better metric on exactly where we are, we would have to ask the IT folks at Veterans Affairs.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do you have an estimate of when this project will be completed? You said it's in the early stages and something about the next few years. Do you not anticipate this digitization project that you're working on with VAC and CAF will be done in the next few years?
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
Let me clarify that there are two projects under way within the Canadian Armed Forces health services group.
The first, the project that kicked off first, was the modernization of the Canadian Forces health information system. That is a project where we are looking at our current electronic health record and modernizing it to bring it up to the same equivalency that one would find in their provincial jurisdictions.
The second project, a separate project, is the extension of that electronic health record directly into the hands of our friends at VAC.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
I'm in charge of it working alongside VAC.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
When is that project—because that to me seems to be the important project—going to be completed?
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
I would hazard a guess. We most certainly expected, had it not been for COVID, that we would have been well under way already. We already have Veterans Affairs adjudicators directly accessing the Canadian Forces health information system, so the first steps are absolutely under way and—
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
Actually, sir, it will never be completed because every time a new adjudicator comes in, we will have to train them and get them up to speed on CFHIS. It's not a project that I ever see finishing. What I do see is that we will continue to work with Veterans Affairs to ensure that they have direct, unfettered access to members' medical files for those members who request adjudications.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do you have any internal studies or reports that look at this and say how much this is going to improve the efficiency of the VAC department? The minister talked about how digitization is going to be a big game-changer. For example, an experienced reviewer can process 17 cases per month. We heard that last week. Would this increase that to 20 or 25 cases a month or do you not have any idea?
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
That is a question that would be better suited to VAC.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
We are actually out of time. That was a quicker answer than I was expecting.
Thank you.
Now we go to MP Amos for the next six minutes.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
William Amos Liberal Pontiac, QC
Thank you, Chair and thanks to the witnesses. I will be sharing my time with Sean Casey.
I want to get into the issue of attribution. I would like to get the perspective of our witnesses today on the issue of whether or not it would be much more helpful if the Canadian Armed Forces automatically provided Veterans Affairs Canada with the medical diagnosis that supported the decision to release a member for medical reasons, and that this be done prior to the date of release. If we could explore that theme of the diagnosis, that would be helpful.
Maybe we could start off with Mr. Heilman.
4:35 p.m.
Chief Informatics Officer, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence
Yes. I am in no way in a position to discuss an attribution prior to or after release. What I can tell you is that the moment that a diagnosis is made by a clinician in the Canadian Armed Forces, it is entered into CFHIS. Therefore, as of the moment they click on the mouse, it's in the electronic health record.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
William Amos Liberal Pontiac, QC
Are there any other witnesses who would like to comment on that particular issue?
4:35 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
I think historically there would have been a problem, not so much with the diagnosis but historically CF doctors were reluctant to give any opinions or diagnoses, particularly as they related to VAC applications. Now I have experienced, in the last year and a half, that changing. I have seen a lot more CF or CAF documents in which they are assessing people or giving a diagnosis, so I have certainly seen a greater loosening of that trend in the past year and a half to two years.