CAR - Canadian Association of Radiologists

The Canadian Association of Radiologists is the national specialty association for radiologists, dedicated to medical imaging excellence in patient care

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Radiologists on Parliament Hill 2023

On October 19th the CAR hosted its 8th Annual Day on the Hill. This date was selected to coincide with the CAR Board Meeting in Ottawa. The purpose of the Day on the Hill is to advocate for the advancement of radiology at the national level and to raise awareness of the important role that radiologists play in the healthcare system. This year, the CAR partnered with the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT) and Sonography Canada to develop recommendations to address the medical imaging crisis in Canada.

The day began with a session focusing on AI and the need for national oversight led by Dr. Jaron Chong, Chair, AI Standing Committee. Nik Nanos from Nanos research also presented newly available data from a public opinion poll. This poll indicated that over 72% of Canadians would support the integration of AI into medical imaging provided there was human oversight included in the interpretation of the imaging. The poll also revealed that nine in ten Canadians value the work that radiologists do.

Throughout the day, your CAR board representatives met with MPs, Senators, and senior political staff to discuss our priorities for improving access to high quality medical imaging care for Canadians. CAR board members represented the association with a high degree of professionalism and ease. We were fortunate to have 18 high touchpoint meetings with parliamentarians from across the country including representatives from the Standing Committees on Health and Finance. We effectively communicated the CAR’s top priorities for medical imaging now and in the future.

All four of the CAR’s priorities resonated well and several politicians agreed to bring these items forward to their leaders and/or councils.

The CAR’s “asks” for federal government investment focused on the following areas:

People

  1. Invest in the hiring and retention of MRTs and sonographers as part of a health human resource strategy to reduce backlogs and improve health services. Canada needs an additional 2,000 MRTs and sonographers in the next three years.

Technology

  1. Take a leadership role in the implementation of Clinical Decision Support systems, to help streamline the imaging referral process and ensure patients receive the right test at the right time.
  2. Demonstrate leadership in AI through the incorporation of the CAR’s Radiology Artificial Intelligence Validation Network’s (RAIVN) framework to improve the evaluation and regulation of AI in Canada as part of Health Canada’s Medical Devices Directorate regulatory process.

Equipment

  1. Guide an investment of $2 billion over three years for radiology equipment.

Parliamentarians understood the crisis in health human resources in radiology and the significant impact of excessively long wait times for medical imaging and that Canadians deserve better. Representatives also responded quite positively to the need to develop a strategy for the implementation of new technologies (AI) to augment the services of radiologists. Some of the MPs offered to champion these initiatives and to write letters to the Ministers of Finance and Health with these requests. We were very pleased with the reception and are optimistic in terms of next steps.

Going Forward

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be following up and requesting to appear before the Standing Committee on Health and Finance as we narrow into the budget consultations. It is essential that we keep the momentum going and the lines of communication open. We also received a significant amount of exposure on social media regarding these meetings. We would like to thank our CAR superstar members who stepped up to represent radiology in Canada.

As a radiologist, you too can become involved by engaging in grass roots advocacy in your community. We encourage you to reach out to your MP and to talk about how wait times for medical imaging are affecting patients. The more individuals we have communicating the same message, the more successful we will be in our advocacy. We are here to help. Should you need tools or resources to assist you in your outreach effort, please contact us at: [email protected].

To read more about our recent advocacy efforts please visit our website.