Health committee  Ugly.

Health committee  As for informed consent, I would remind everyone that this is an elective surgery, not a life-saving device. The other place that we're seeing these patients having to give consent is with our reconstruction patients, who are making these decisions in the middle of active breast cancer.

Health committee  The political infrastructure of this is beyond my scope. If I can simplify it, if Health Canada's mandate is the safety of our population, their mandate is oversight. We get called in to state the problems, and we have solutions, but unfortunately we never seem to be invited to the discussion table.

Health committee  That's a fantastic question. I've asked that question of the ASPS, the American plastic surgeon association, when I landed on websites that are so dangerous. They are literally dangerous to patients. I will tell you that I sent off a request to ASPS to ask what we can do about this, because this doesn't represent your organization with any credibility.

Health committee  One of the things we haven't discussed is immigration. I've dealt with many immigrants who had their surgeries done in their original countries but have now landed in Canada. Again, for those patients, is there not an option somehow for them or for a physician to upload that data?

Health committee  I can tell you that my surgery was in 2009. My surgeon did say, “Terri, these should last around 10 years”, and I made a mental note saying, “Save another 10 grand, Terri, because in 10 years you may have to get these replaced.” I also know, as a Canadian woman, that every 10 years I have a different thought and belief system because I have evolved.

Health committee  I don't live in a litigious country, but what I can tell you is that the fear of litigation has not been discussed so far at this hearing. That's all I'm going to suggest. The fear of litigation to these plastic surgeons is significant, serious and not being discussed.

Health committee  There are very few absolute answers, but I can absolutely answer: Absolutely not. As for the true risk profile.... We talk about slick marketing. I have a link to some board-certified plastic surgeons who are also on the executive committee as the thought leaders of their societies.

Health committee  As somebody who ran a business for a long time, I can say that looking for 100% accuracy in this database is an unrealistic expectation. Canadians who choose medical tourism.... That is an outlier percentage. It is minor. Do we give that patient or their surgeon an option when they land back in Canada and have a problem?

Health committee  I'll start with that. My first thought would be to reframe that question and say that we're already paying. I do not know what it cost to treat me at Princess Margaret through multiple rounds of chemotherapy and my stem cell transplant, and I'm continuing on six-month follow-ups.

Health committee  Absolutely, for me.

Health committee  Don't hold back, please.

Health committee  I'll qualify that I'm not a registry expert. However, from what we've heard from this committee in previous meetings, I think that it must be mandated and be what I believe is called an opt-out registry. If you really don't want your information there, you have to make a lot of effort to take it out.

Health committee  I don't, but I could draw your attention to the fine print in the NBIR, the U.S. registry. I will tell you that as a citizen in 2023 and with those fears around privacy and about data being hijacked, I thought they went a little bit into too much detail. After I read the instructions for the data, the thought that my data could be sold to a third party sometime in the future, undisclosed to me, I will tell you that, skeptically, I would have said, “Really?”

Health committee  That's right, and sold to an unknown party at any time in the future. That, to me, is just far too broad of a stroke.