Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here today. My name is Geneviève Moineau, and I am here on behalf of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. Our Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada is the representative of academic medicine in Canada

Health committee  Thank you so much. I was speaking to our future of medical education in Canada MD project, for which the eighth recommendation is to advance inter- and intra-professional practice. We have been implementing these recommendations—and this is an ongoing endeavour within our assoc

Health committee  That is the system in the U.K., and again every system has its risks and benefits, but that is a potentially desirable system.

Health committee  May I respond to that?

Health committee  That's agreed, and I think in our recommendations there's a full recognition of the fact that physicians aren't the answer. They need to be part of the answer of providing health care. I think what would help is in fact ensuring that all health care providers are regulated. Some

Health committee  Where we see the benefit of involving the federal government is that it helps to facilitate the provinces getting together. That's exactly the example of our physician resource planning task force. It's understanding that looking at a physician resource is only one piece of the b

Health committee  Just for clarity, I represent the faculties of medicine of Canada, so those that do the education at the level of the MD. In fact, absolutely; this is where, when I discussed our future of medical education in Canada project, it was very clear that one of the very important rec

Health committee  I agree with what Ms. Fréchette just said. In principle, a new profession could fix some of the problems plaguing health care. It will help us deal with the perceived lack of certain types of physicians. But the profession has to be regulated. In a perfect world, the regulatory

Health committee  Thank you for the great question. We believe, and this is part of the work we're doing through the physician resource task force, that medical students should understand from the very beginning that they have a social accountability and that they will be asked to work where the

Health committee  Different models have been established. Other provinces do have them, but they were set up differently. You said that older doctors weren't accustomed to working under that model. And that's precisely one of the dimensions we feel is important. Doctors need ongoing education. It

Health committee  Again, we have probably the best medical education in the world in Canada, based on the strengths of many of the organizations represented here today. Part of that strength comes from the fact that we practise medicine as evidence-based. So the care that is provided to our patien

Health committee  There is no financial incentive there.

Health committee  In fact, in organizations where physicians are reimbursed as an alternate funding plan, so it's not a direct fee for service—all of our hospitals in Ottawa function that way, where the physicians working within the hospital settings are on an alternate funding plan—in those envir

Health committee  The other beauty of what you just described in your personal experience is this. Imagine if I as a patient owned my medical information, and that if I happen to be travelling, I have—maybe not the microchip under the skin—but maybe I have a credit card with all of my medical info

Health committee  I would reiterate the fact that in order to be successful in this endeavour, there needs to be oversight that facilitates all of the players coming into a room, sitting around a table, and you lock the door and you don't let them come out until they have figured it out. That's t