Natural Resources committee  I think I was appointed as special adviser to the minister because of the significant national and international expertise I have, my expertise in the field of nuclear medicine, the fact that I have breadth of knowledge through nuclear medicine and through pathology.

Natural Resources committee  Which of the five motions?

Natural Resources committee  If I can go through the motions in order, it might be helpful. In regard to the first motion, as a clinician I am obviously supportive of this motion. On the second motion, I believe we have attempted to have very broad representation in our consultation with the nuclear medic

Natural Resources committee  My understanding is that it is part of the mandate of the NRCan expert panel. I have some knowledge of nuclear physics. I am not a nuclear physicist, and I certainly am not competent to discuss any specifics around that. I'm hoping that the NRCan expert panel will provide sound a

Natural Resources committee  The situation for our patients is of great concern. I think we have learned a great deal from the 2007 shutdown. The working group that we have had going pretty much consistently since that initial shutdown has come up with sound advice, has come up with creative advice for our c

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be brief. As you have identified, I'm the special adviser to the Minister of Health. My day job is as chair of the department of oncology at the University of Alberta. I'm also a previous chair of the department of radiology at the same university

Natural Resources committee  I'm a member of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine, which is the overarching body representing nuclear medicine in this country.

Health committee  Madam Chair, I'd like to very quickly put this in three parts. The first part is the supply forecast. There is a supply forecast that is given to Health Canada and I believe passed on to the rest of the country on a weekly basis. The supply forecast on June 18.... Technetium-99m

Health committee  Technetium is an interesting product. For many years technetium was an insignificant part of the cost of a ready pharmaceutical. With the increase that is going up now, it has gone from being insignificant to being a meaningful part of the overall cost of the ready pharmaceutical

Health committee  We certainly should in the very short term. Those are the things that are going to make a difference for our patients tomorrow. Many of the other things we've talked about around the table will take some time to roll out. What we have to ensure is that the regulatory process is a

Health committee  I would hope that both the minister and the community would see that as a really important part of my role. I clearly see it as that, and as I indicated earlier, I have already started having conversations with colleagues in Ontario so that I can really understand the issues in O

Health committee  Madam Chair, from my perspective, I appreciate her confidence in my ability to work with the minister and the community in the communication area. I'm encouraged and look forward to working with the chair and the committee. Remember, there are only two suppliers of generators i

Health committee  I've made reference to the meeting that the society facilitated between a number of different countries and medical and nuclear medicine organizations. We are actually coping better than most and not as well as some. There is no doubt that there are a number of issues, particul

Health committee  Madam Chair, my suggestions for that would be as follows. I think the first is that there is a mechanism to facilitate the current activities. These are working. I believe they're working relatively well. I'm sure there can be some improvements. I think that's the first thing: th

Health committee  The Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine did a broad study, I think it was about four years ago, looking at distribution of tests across the country. I know the two associations are looking at addressing that. I agree it's something that is important to know.