Digital Policy Salon: The Changing Role of Technology in Healthcare

Digital healthcare in Canada became more accessible—and often digital—during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to patient demand for more convenient and safer health services.

This trend toward more accessible healthcare Canada, particularly in rural and remote communities, depends on modern, patient-centered data infrastructure, better broadband connectivity, more digital skills among healthcare practitioners, as well as more inclusive design.

These are some of the findings in the report, ICTC Policy Roundtable on Smart Health and Wellbeing in Canada, which is the fifth installment of ICTC’s multi-year national research initiative on smart cities. The initiative aims to understand the labour, technology, and societal needs and opportunities for Canada’s future communities. Roundtable discussions engage a variety of stakeholders across Canada to uncover specific policy needs and offer recommendations that can support a smart future for our cities.

Read the full brief here 📖

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how seemingly abstract concepts like intellectual property (IP)—policies that protect the creations of human intellect—in fact directly impact our lives. Economic forces contribute to determining which countries and companies have the money to purchase vaccine doses, and which have the production infrastructure and IP licensing to produce them domestically. Similar conditions, such as talent and capital availability, shape who produced vaccine candidates in the first place.

Vaccines are just one example of a much larger debate surrounding IP rights. President Joseph Biden, economist Mariana Mazzucato, and other public figures contend that vaccine patent holders should waive their IP rights for the greater good. Others, including the President of the World Bank David Malpass, argue that IP waivers, even temporary ones, would reduce the profit motive companies need to iterate and scale rapidly. Another common rejoinder to those in favour of waiving vaccine patents is that manufacturing capacity is the real bottleneck prohibiting global vaccine equity, not IP. Importantly, significant debate exists on whether or not this is the case, and countries such as South Africa and India have asked the World Trade Organization to waive international IP protections for domestic production.

When advocates talk about waiving IP rights, what exactly are they requesting? The alternative could be called “open access,” “free and open source,” “PatentLeft” or a variety of movements that seek to provide free access to designs and/or products. IP protection secures a strategic advantage for a company or researcher in exchange for the time they have put into research and development. Open access encourages free access to data and information, without penalty for re-use—though, often, still respecting attribution of the original creator.

Read the full article here 📝

In this session, we invite Greater Montreal residents to share and explore issues and opportunities that impact them today, and how smart technologies might contribute to those issues and opportunities. Guest speakers will present in French and there will be breakout rooms for community engagement in both French and English. We want to hear from you, Montreal residents!

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​Audience: Technology Companies that Offer EdTech Solutions

About: The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is conducting a study on educational technology procurement in Canada. At this event, we want to hear from members of the educational technology industry to inform our research and recommendations to policymakers. We’ll discuss the process of getting technology into Canadian schools, differences across the provinces and territories, and opportunities for improvement. Join us to lend your voice to this research!

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