House committee begins study of possible breast implant registry

The House of Commons Health Committee has begun a study to explore the feasibility of a nationwide breast implant registry, including the scope and function of such a registry.

“A breast implant registry could be proposed for two different broad purposes,” said David Boudreau, the head of Health Canada’s medical devices directorate. “It could serve to support patient safety notifications, also referred to as ‘track and trace,’ or have a research purpose, or both.”

Some breast implant devices have been recalled in recent years, and some procedures have been linked to illnesses, such as certain cancers, though monitoring and data collection to make a clear connection between the two are ongoing by researchers and organizations in several countries.

A possible function of a registry could be to better connect patients with information about recalls or illnesses from breast implants, said Bloc Quebecois MP and health committee vice-chair Luc Theriault, who proposed the committee study.

Boudreau said Health Canada keeps track of which devices have been recalled and why, but without a registry it doesn’t know how many patients have been impacted by said recalls.

One of the potential barriers to a comprehensive national implant registry is the fact that 85 per cent of breast implant procedures are being done at private clinics.

Boudreau said the only existing medical device registry that exists in Canada is for joint replacements, namely hips and knees, and added the potential challenges to a breast implant registry include patient privacy, health information data sharing, and the role of private clinics.

When Theriault proposed the study last February, he said the government has been mulling the possibility of a registry for decades.

“This is crazy,” Theriault said last February. “The trouble we’ve had in this file stems from the fact that the problems, in many instances, emerge 10, 15 or 20 years later. The practitioners in question are often retired or no longer in the picture.”

“Since there’s no registry, the women who are dealing with the problems or who are unaware of any potential problems can’t verify what was implanted in them,” he also said. “When you know that most problematic implants were introduced during reconstructions, in women who have had cancer, for example, it’s important that we be able to resolve this issue once and for all.”

Boudreau said it’s unclear how much a registry might cost until there’s a decision on its scope — for example who will manage it, what data it’s tracking, and whether other levels of government are involved — but that it would likely be “quite expensive.”

The committee is currently taking submissions from the public as part of its study and is set to hear from more experts.