Canada is home to some of the best researchers, scientists and research infrastructure in the world.iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Innovation is the centrepiece of medical advancement in Canada, providing a foundation for the discovery of new drugs and treatments, and for the development of the skills and expertise medical professionals of the future will need to meet the challenges of increasingly complex health care.
Much of that innovation is driven by Canada’s medical schools and organizations such as Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), whose 41 member companies discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines and vaccines.
IMC president Pamela Fralick says Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical companies invest more than $1.2-billion annually in research and development and support 30,000 highly skilled employees working to find new ways of treating and curing illnesses and diseases.
“Canada is home to some of the best researchers, scientists and research infrastructure in the world,” she says. “Our innovative pharmaceutical companies partner with universities and research centres across the country to leverage their expertise and push the boundaries of medical innovation.”
Geneviève Moineau, president and CEO, Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC), says research undertaken in medical schools throughout Canada is responsible for many major advances in health care.
“The next generation of health professionals will need research training to become innovative and compete in knowledge-based global economies,” she says. “Clinician researchers/scientists, who are versed in multiple disciplines, possess a unique set of skills that set them apart from other health professionals. AFMC supports the need to train these individuals who meet a pressing national need, are the future leaders and drivers of research and innovation in Canada.”
Dr. Moineau says it’s also the duty of Canadian medical schools to fulfill their social accountability mandate and be responsive to the needs of Canadians over time. For example, AFMC is currently involved in discussions on enhancing medical schools’ curricula in response to the opioid crisis, embracing artificial intelligence while maintaining humanism in medicine, and ensuring new physicians can provide culturally safe care.
“Collectively, we must address challenges that impact both individual learners traversing the education continuum and the general public who is at the receiving end of patient care by these future physicians,” she adds.
Ms. Fralick says the innovative pharmaceutical industry could be an important ally for the government in strengthening Canadian innovation and health research but needs a regulatory environment that will encourage global companies to choose Canada.
“The growth potential is immense: the biopharmaceutical industry is the single largest investor in business R&D in the world, investing $1.4-trillion globally since 2006, and is expected to invest another trillion dollars by 2022, with a forecast annual spend that year of $182-billion,” she says.
Canada is also a leading jurisdiction for clinical trials, which are a key element of pharmaceutical research and innovation. There are currently more than 4,500 clinical trials underway in the country, according to Ms. Fralick.
“In July this year, the Institute for Health Economics in Alberta completed an important report quantifying the research-based pharmaceutical industry’s clinical trial contribution to Canada’s health systems. The study shows that the 394 industry-sponsored clinical trials completed in 2016, involving 20,000 patients, are estimated to have saved Canadian health-care systems $2.1-billion,” she says.
This is because when a pharmaceutical company sponsors a clinical trial, it covers nearly all the expenses including the cost of the drug, fees for ethics reviews, trial management and patient care costs.
“Clinical trials are a critical step towards bringing new medicines and vaccines safely to market, and provide Canadians with access to new, potentially lifesaving medications and therapies,” adds Ms. Fralick.
Dr. Moineau says AFMC advocates for growing Canada’s health and biosciences industry to not only generate wealth and knowledge economy jobs in Canada, but also to improve the health of Canadians with “made in Canada” solutions.
And while Canadian medical schools facilitate the acquisition of scientific expertise, this alone cannot help patients deal with the loss of health and find some sort of meaning in their illness, she adds.
“We must graduate physicians who can and will listen to their patients and sufficiently understand their narratives of illness to act on their patient’s behalf,” says Dr. Moineau. “Any medical school that is serious about fostering a humanistic approach among its graduates must foster the development of supportive and collaborative learning environments that value mutual respect, professionalism and academic integrity.”
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