Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Sad to say, it's true in my area, which is Vancouver; the same thing happens. I'm not sure I can give you specific recommendations, but here is an area in which we can possibly learn from what happens in other countries. There are many possible approaches. Telemedicine is one;

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  The overall success rate at CIHR is a little below 20%, which doesn't sound bad. It's pretty good, compared with other places. The problem is that there are no longer poor grants being submitted to CIHR. It's all excellent, all very good stuff, so the question becomes whether it

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Perhaps I can respond briefly specifically on the issue of genetic discrimination. While I don't want to downplay the advances made in other countries, I should emphasize that Canada has played a leadership role in this and should continue to play a leadership role. Probably man

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Thanks. Just briefly, yes, of course we have gone to provincial governments. Parkinson Society British Columbia is constantly engaged with the provincial government. There are a couple of things here. One is that I'm responsible for delivery of neurological care, and not just f

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Oh, right: you raised the question about the national drug program. That's an example of where I think federal direction can help. Each province has a drug program, and people are covered to varying degrees, but the specifics vary from one province to another. If there were a fed

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I think, again, it's collaborative: Mr. Brown asked about other countries, and I just want to emphasize that there are, of course, many other countries doing work. We are always looking at collaborations. I'm going to a meeting next week in Montreal that is trying to bring togeth

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Mostly, essential tremor is a condition that's poorly understood but results in tremor without the other problems that are associated with Parkinson's. The basis for essential tremor is not well understood. There is currently some controversy as to whether it may be associated wi

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  You've heard from me what I think are the necessary components of a care team, and I think Michael would have expanded that to include other specialists. For me, it is also very important to have psychiatric care incorporated. In fact, we're trying that at the University of Bri

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  For my program, enormous.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I can't give you the dollar amount, but I think you're aware of the CIHR budget constraints. In an attempt to try to fund more researchers, which was an understandable aim, the individual dollar amounts have been cut back. But perhaps most importantly, from my perspective, the te

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I can only support that. I'll just say that I had never met Mr. McGinnis before this morning, and as I watched him walking down the stairs, I thought, “He needs some Botox”. You may have seen the startle on my face when he said that he normally would be getting it but that the

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Well, in my view it is, and medication is only one part of that. For me, the other very important part is multidisciplinary care. Physiotherapists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists--these people may provide more useful input to people

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I'm always anxious about this question, because while on the one hand it's the holy grail for all of us, and enormous strides have been made, I'm also always very nervous about setting inappropriately high expectations. People have been saying for many years that the cure is five

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Thank you for that question. Yes, I think that really would be my top request. I think that within centres, there's a need to support multidisciplinary teams, and we came close to such a mechanism, I think, with the CIHR team grants, but we've lost that. So I think it's very imp

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Sure. I'd be happy to thank you for that and of course speak in support of it. I think we do require a lot more awareness of brain health and brain diseases, because this affects so many people, not only as individuals, but all those around them, with six degrees of separation.