CSPC 2017

Panel Organizer: Angela Behboodi, Hoffmann-La Roche Limited

Canada has long been a strong contributor to the world’s advances in clinical research and health innovation. Harnessing many unique assets that span demographic diversity, to academic leadership, clinical expertise, government commitment and public-private collaboration; sustaining Canada’s role as a medical research and health innovation hub is paramount and particularly apparent when examining support for rare disease. As the rate of scientific advancement accelerates, public policy, clinical practice, and health-system adoption have not kept pace and the need for adaptive policy, novel implementation and infrastructure accommodation widens. This gap is only amplified when you consider the “extraordinary” needs of people living with a rare disorder. However, there are areas where great strides have been made and solutions to address these shared challenges have been realized, both here in Canada and across the globe. This panel will surface challenges, opportunities and emerging best practices in enabling a sustained, vibrant Canadian science and health innovation environment for orphan and common diseases.
 
The panel “Canada’s Clinical Innovation in Fifty Years: The Future May Be Rare” focuses on the future of clinical innovation as a means to cultivate supportive conditions for improved care for rare patients in Canada. The use of scientific knowledge to improve patient impact and system receptivity is at the core of this topic.  More importantly, it raises numerous interesting and difficult policy questions related to how Canada must ready the system to address the “extraordinary” needs of rare patients including; novel clinical innovation strategies, new regulatory and funding mechanisms, infrastructure accommodation and knowledge sharing across boundaries and through centres of excellence.