HN Summary

• Addressing Health Care Strain: Canada’s health system faces major challenges from health human resource shortages, especially in underserved areas and during crises.

• Innovation and Efficiency: Medtech companies help ease these pressures by investing in R&D to develop advanced devices, diagnostics, and digital tools that improve efficiency and patient outcomes.

• Education and Training Support: Through partnerships with schools and health organizations, medtech firms provide training and resources that upskill health care professionals and prepare them for evolving patient and system needs.

Canada’s health care system is facing unprecedented pressures due to shortages in health human resources. This scarcity of skilled personnel poses significant challenges to health care delivery, especially in underserved areas and during times of crisis. However, medical technology companies provide support to alleviate these challenges in several ways.

Medical technology companies invest heavily in research and development to create innovative solutions that streamline health care delivery and improve patient outcomes. By developing advanced medical devices, diagnostic tools, and digital health technologies, Medtech Canada member companies empower health care providers to deliver high-quality care more efficiently. This, in turn, helps to mitigate the strain on existing human resources by enabling health care professionals to work smarter, not harder. 

Beyond innovation, medtech companies also play a pivotal role in strengthening the workforce through education and training. Through collaborations with academic institutions and health care organizations, these companies provide training programs, workshops, and educational resources that enhance the skills and knowledge of health care workers. By equipping them with the latest technologies and best practices, medical technology companies ensure that health care professionals are better prepared to meet the evolving needs of patients and health systems.

Critical Support Roles Provided by the Medtech Industry

Additionally, medical technology companies employ staff members that provide critical support to Canada’s health care providers. These individuals facilitate the ongoing delivery of diagnostic, interventional and surgical care. These professionals provide hands-on support across clinical, logistical, and technical domains.

• Clinical Support – Deemed critical to the delivery of patient care as validated by health care providers. Roles include real-time guidance around instrumentation, staffing of key systems and troubleshooting.

• Logistics Support – Roles not fulfilled by hospitals that include the safe movement of products throughout the institution to ensure the right products are in the right arena at the right time.

• Service Support – Ongoing real-time servicing of capital or other devices to facilitate the safe and effective use of products or systems (may include critical software upgrades and real-time technical trouble shooting).

Illustrations of Critical Roles Provided by Medical Technology Industry Associates*

• Cardiac Mapping Clinical Associate  – In the Electrophysiology arena (atrial fibrillation ablation and other complex interventional procedures) industry associates are critical to operating the hardware/software that assist clinicians in visualizing their work in real time. Most labs across Canada do not have internal resources to fulfill this critical role and rely on highly skilled/trained professionals to ensure procedures run smoothly and effectively.

• Clinical Diagnostics Associate – Contemporary lab tests are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly implemented in hospitals. These associates are critical for assay support, explaining testing procedures/instrumentation and how to best interpret results to optimize their utility. In parallel, some also help the Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial stewardship team to correctly lever software enabling them to increase their productivity managing patient throughput. 

• Interventional Radiology Clinical Associate/Vascular Access Clinical Associate: – Critical in assisting physicians, radiology technicians and vascular access teams with inserting vascular access devices (e.g., Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters – PICC Lines, Dialysis Catheters) to support infusate(s) and intended dwell times in the ICU and other departments. Guidance is critical for new PICC inserters on insertion technique and appropriate leverage of ultrasound technology used for both visualization of insertion and confirmation of placement.

• Ophthalmic Surgery Clinical Associate – The phacoemulsification (phaco) equipment utilized in cataract surgery is critical for the procedure. While surgeons are trained to use the phaco unit, surgeons often require the assistance of programming of the equipment during a cataract case, as every case is unique and/or could be more complicated than routine surgery. Phaco Specialists are in the OR to support and help guide surgeons and nursing staff to ensure best patient outcomes possible.

• Orthopaedic Clinical Associate – These associates are critical in the set-up of the OR (ensuring the right instruments and implants sterilized and delivered), guidance of nursing staff on appropriate set-up, sequencing and appropriate use of complex instrumentation, and support of the surgeon in implant choice given complex clinical presentations. These individuals are even more crucial in common scenarios of weekend call where staff may not be consistently exposed to these instruments and implants. Areas of high complexity, and therefore reliance, include orthopedic trauma, complex joint revision or limb salvation and complex spine procedures.

• Service Support Technician – These technicians, also termed Field Engineers, are critical in maintaining systems on a regular basis to ensure the proper functionality, maintenance of ISO accreditation and completing ongoing repairs. They are also key in training of hospital technicians in the proper use all equipment. 

As Canada continues to navigate health human resource challenges, the medtech industry remains a steadfast partner—delivering innovation, expertise, and hands-on support to ensure patients receive the care they need, when they need it. nH

* Titles are generic in nature as each company utilizes different nomenclature and this list is not  exhaustive but, serves as an illustra tion.