Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI
OTTAWA – The rigid bureaucracy and funding models of Canada’s healthcare systems slows the adoption of new medical technologies, to the detriment of patients, argues the MEI in an Economic Note published this morning.
“Because of the lack of incentives in the current system, administrators often see the adoption of new technologies solely as a risk,” explains Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and author of the publication. “As a result, we continue to use outdated methods and equipment, which is safer for administrators, but doesn’t help patients get the best care.”
Eloquent examples
The researcher cites the slow adoption of surgical robots as a telling example of this lag.
Intuitive, the company that manufactures the da Vinci robotic surgery systems, is the main player in this market, and international comparisons generally refer to the number of its systems that have been installed, given its dominant position and the availability of data. In 2025, only 39 Canadian clinics and hospitals used these systems.
In the United States, over 2,000 clinics and hospitals use 5,500 robotic surgery systems. In Germany, over 200 surgical robots are installed in the country’s hospitals, and have been used to perform over 200,000 operations.
The researcher explains that a substantial proportion of these systems were financed by philanthropic donations in Canada.
“If not for foundations and philanthropy, innovative medical equipment would be almost entirely absent from Canadian hospitals,” points out Ms. Faubert. “Excessive centralization, funding by historical budgets, and the lack of competition between hospitals essentially kills the incentive to innovate.”
The situation is even more striking when it comes to proton beam therapy, a type of radiology that is used to treat certain cancers that are difficult to treat otherwise.
Canada is the only G7 country without a proton beam therapy clinic. In the United States today, there are 40 active centres, while Germany has five of them.
Currently, Canadian healthcare systems send patients in need of proton beam therapy abroad for treatment, notably to the United States, at high cost.
In Ontario alone, 143 requests for treatment abroad were approved between 2018 and 2024, at an average cost of over $80,000 per patient.
“Canada is paying to send its patients abroad, while our health bureaucracies are slow to open their own centres, when they aren’t causing independent projects to fail,” says Ms. Faubert. “Unfortunately, in the battle between health bureaucracies and project developers, it is patients who suffer.”
The researcher cites the example of an independent proton beam therapy centre project, to be accessible through Quebec’s public health insurance plan, proposed for Montreal in 2018 by CDL Laboratories, which was subsequently cancelled by a governmental decision.
More independent health facilities
Contrary to public hospitals, it is possible for private clinics, diagnostic centres, and autonomous group practices to adopt new technologies without depending on a centralized bureaucratic process, explains the researcher. Philanthropy has already demonstrated that alternative financing can accelerate access to innovation. The private sector now needs to be allowed to play this role on a larger scale.
Many countries with universal healthcare systems already rely on this model to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, without abandoning access to care.
“Ultimately, when you need a treatment, the clinic’s ownership type is the least of your worries, far behind treatment accessibility,” concludes Ms. Faubert. “By allowing independent clinics to lend a hand, access to care is improved for all.”
You can read the MEI Economic Note by clicking here: https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/economic-note-102026.pdf
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
