Health committee  I will just say that I was going to reinforce that point. Genome Canada has been very successful in building genomic capacity, and it may be a strategy that could be looked at for—

Health committee  I wasn't the one who commented about the personalized drug approval process. I think that's an important issue. I don't have an answer for it, but it's something that needs to be considered as part of how these technologies change the way we do things within the health care secto

Health committee  I would point out that these things are all happening very quickly, and I don't think our society is ready for them currently. There are all kinds of issues related to personal health information and how this information is used, which we haven't really thought through. It's upon

Health committee  Using viruses to deliver a gene of interest is a sort of standard thing in gene therapy and also now in vaccinology. We use two viruses to deliver Ebola genes: one is a nanovirus, and the other is a cow virus called vesicular stomatitis virus. Both produce very robust immune resp

Health committee  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here. I thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about how we use technologies. We live in a remarkable time when it comes to technological advancements. Within the lifespans of most of us, we've gone from marve

Health committee  I would add that I completely agree with Dr. Spika. I think it would box us in.

Health committee  I would add to what John said. The picture emerges over time. The H1N1 virus is a good example. When it first emerged in Mexico, it appeared to be a pretty severe problem because the most severely ill people are the ones who come for medical attention first. But as things evolved

Health committee  Yes, I am.

Health committee  No, I didn't.

Health committee  Sure, I'd be glad to do that. Thanks for the question. I think Dr. Spika is probably in a better position to speak to some of these questions. An epidemic is an increase in the number of cases of a given illness in a particular location. We call it a pandemic when it's pretty m

Health committee  I am. It's good to be here again.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. The role of the Public Health Agency, through its national microbiology laboratory, is to coordinate the overall PulseNet system, which is a network of provincial and federal laboratories that spans the country. The role of the national microbiology l

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. To expand a bit on what David said, the electronic laboratory surveillance--what I like to call the virtual laboratory ability--linking labs across the country is a very powerful tool. We've been working on enhancing that. Even with the listeria outbre

Health committee  The initial work will be done in a hospital laboratory. That would then be fed to a provincial laboratory, which would have the capability of the molecular fingerprinting of a listeria or E. coli or salmonella. That would then be shared nationally, electronically. We don't have t

Health committee  I think it would be better for others to comment on that.