10 www.lexpert.ca
DIGITAL
REVOLUTION IN
HEALTH SCIENCES
deliver health care through telecommuni-
cations," says Michael Watts, a partner at
Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto.
"It's resulted in an acceleration of invest-
ment and proliferation of the offerings and
the technologies."
In short, the digital revolution in the
provision of health care has arrived, and it
won't be going away.
New technologies
"In my view, we're seeing two things: lots
of new products and lots of activities in
the M&A space," says Sara Zborovski, a
partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto.
Increased innovation and technolog y,
combined with a more tech-savvy culture,
and then the COVID-19 pandemic "have
created this perfect storm," she says.
"All of a sudden, we're all way more
comfortable doing things online, including
people of all generations. We're seeing a
ton of new products, an increase in disease
prevention technologies and lots of transac-
tions in the M&A space."
Hospital systems are now investing in
secured Zoom systems, and in December
2019, Health Canada issued, for the first time,
guidance on soware as a medical device.
Telehealth virtual apps started appearing
about eight years ago, says Watts. "You had
a few companies making apps available on a
IN APRIL, the Competition Bureau
announced it had commenced a market
study of Canada's health-care sector to
"better understand existing or potential
impediments to innovation and choice, and
possible opportunities for change, in digital
health care."
e Bureau will examine issues related
to the approval of digital health products,
including medical devices, hospital procure-
ment and the ability of health-care providers
to deliver digital care to patients, says Laura
Weinrib, a partner at Blake Cassels &
Graydon LLP in Toronto.
Billing codes, compensation for delivering
digital health care, the scope of practice of
health-care professionals, whether provincial
health-care professional statutes are overly
limiting and who can provide digital care
have all been under the microscope, she adds.
e Bureau will now accept comments on
its study and make recommendations to the
health-care sector.
"ey're aware that this is a hot topic,"
Weinrib says, noting that, in the market
study, the Bureau stated that COVID-19
had accelerated the use of digital health care.
"e push toward digital health care, tele-
health — those are the things that are here
to stay."
"COVID, particularly in health care, has
accelerated the adoption of technolog y to
COVID-19, PARTICULARLY IN
HEALTH, HAS ACCELERATED THE
ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY
TO DELIVER CARE THROUGH
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, AND
TELEHEALTH WILL FORM
A LARGE PART OF FUTURE
HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
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