"I'd like to begin with Dr. Zamboni's conclusions, which I think are worth repeating because they inform a lot of where a lot of the people in the room feel we need to go.

They are as follows:

CCSVI exists and is a serious obstruction, whether the patient has MS or not. CCSVI is significantly related to MS. Angioplasty corrects the blood flow from the brain. That correction helps people with MS.

It is irresponsible not to proceed with angioplasty treatment of CCSVI in patients with MS, under the umbrella of clinical studies supervised by ethical committees.

In terms of the patients who may end up in a wheelchair next week or lose their lives to MS, I'm asking why the first piece of research wouldn't be to capture the people who have neurological disease, well-documented by their specialists across the country, and who have gone elsewhere to get their procedure and then have come back to Canada. Why would that not be the first piece of research you would do in this population that exists right now, so that you could very quickly figure out whether or not this works?

I think Dr. Maggisano was very clear that the narrowness of the project being funded by the MS Society is not going to get us where we want to go as quickly as the people and the patients require.

So I guess I would like Dr. Beaudet to tell us what is the nature of the research that will be funded by CIHR. And obviously we would like the $16 million that was mentioned in the previous testimony of the minister to go there, but how do we get you more money so you can capture what exists already?

So I'd like to know, I guess firstly, from Dr. Beaudet, what is the proposal you've put out there? You said it was very broad. I'm not sure that's what people want to hear. I think they want to hear that it is about CCSVI.

Secondly, who is on the panel? And are some of the people with experience doing this procedure, like Dr. Zamboni and Dr. Simka, or the partners in Buffalo, on the panel? Because there has been concern, as you know, that as Dr. McDonald said, asking for an electrician for permission to go and do a plumbing job has not been satisfactory up until now.

And then I guess I would say to Dr. Maggisano, you've have said you want double-blind trials, but how would you suggest that CIHR move forward such that all of the people who are being discriminated against because they happen to have MS...? How would you capture them, in what...? It looks like an echo colour Doppler, as was said in Dr. Zamboni's testimony, would be an ideal tool for a non-invasive screening, such that these people could actually start there."




In this transcript from Parliament Hill, the awesome Dr. Bennett is asking blunt questions to Canadian Institutes of Health Research President Alain Beaudet.

WaYnE




Transcript of Parliament Hill meeting - June 15 2010:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4630130&Language=E&Mode=2&Parl=40&Ses=3