New guidance from an expert panel offers recommendations on minimum retesting intervals for 5 laboratory tests that are commonly repeated in hospitals, health authorities, and community laboratories across the country.

The guidance may help these organizations implement strategies that support the appropriate use of lab tests and address inefficient use of health care resources. The recommendations cover 5 lab tests that are used in prespecified populations or clinical scenarios: 

In mid-March, we identified a cybersecurity incident in which an external party gained access to an application in our IT systems. We discovered the incident after an alarm was triggered. We immediately undertook countermeasures to prevent any further unauthorized access or activity and decommissioned the impacted application. We retained third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with containment and remediation, and to conduct a forensic investigation to determine the cause and extent of this incident.

Registration is now open for Symposium 2024, a flagship event in the health technology assessment (HTA) community.

Symposium 2024 will be held on September 4 to 6, 2024, and offers both in-person networking and virtual attendance options. The in-person program will take place at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa. This year’s theme is From Disruption to Opportunity: Embracing Change in Health Care.  

Health Canada’s Notice of Compliance with conditions (NOC/c) policy has been effective in providing people in Canada with faster access to new oncology drugs based on promising data.

As part of our ongoing initiative to improve and modernize our reimbursement review program, Canada’s Drug Agency is introducing the first phase of process improvements related to companion diagnostics.  

A companion diagnostic is a class of medical device used alongside a drug that is essential for the safe and effective use of the corresponding drug or biologic product. These tests can detect biomarkers that may predict a more favourable response to a particular therapy and can be used to help tailor individualized treatment. 

Canada’s Drug Agency has published a new report on an economic modelling approach used in evaluations of tumour-agnostic drugs that treat cancer.