Expert Advisory Body on the Economic Cost of Illness in Canada: Meetings

Meetings are closed to the public, but summary of discussions are provided below for each meeting.

Past meetings

Objective: To provide an overview of the Public Health Agency of Canada's Science Strategy, seek input on analytical and methodological approaches concerning informal caregiving, hospital and physician costs, and provide an update on the forward peer review plan.
The EAB raised considerations on analytical and methodological issues such as assessing the impact of COVID-19 on caregiving costs, dealing with non-responses in survey data, addressing small sample size concerns and managing challenges with physician billing data.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their analytical and peer review planning. The ECIC Secretariat will also follow-up with some members on specific topics raised during the meeting and adjust methods based on their feedback.

Objective: To seek input on analytical and methodological approaches concerning the estimation of informal caregiving costs and lost productivity, and feedback on the forward plan for the peer review of results and the presentation of socio-demographic results.
The EAB raised considerations on analytical and methodological issues such as the replacement cost method, advanced notification of upcoming peer review requests, the need to account for COVID-19 in the analysis, and the duration of lost productivity.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their analytical and peer review planning.

Objective: To seek input on analytical and methodological approaches, such as formal caregiving, comorbidities and lost production due to morbidity, and provide an update on the ECIC's Indigenous data governance plan.
The EAB raised considerations on analytical and methodological issues as noted above and to recognize data limitations and apply pragmatic approaches. Furthermore, the EAB provided input on the peer review and validation process of ECIC results.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their analytical planning and forward agendas.

Objective: To seek input on analytical and methodological approaches.
The EAB brought up considerations on analytical and methodological issues, and the need to provide transparency on methods used to address these issues as well as limitations.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their planning and forward agendas.

Objective: To seek input on the methodology outlined in the ECIC Statistical Analytical Plans and provide an overview of the Public Health Agency of Canada's work on Indigenous data governance as well as ECIC's Indigenous data governance plan.
The EAB brought up considerations on methodological issues, and Indigenous data governance and engagement for ECIC.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their planning and forward agendas.

Objective: To seek input on data and methodological issues.
The EAB brought up considerations on data and methodological issues, and Indigenous data governance and engagement.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will continue to incorporate feedback from EAB members into their planning and forward agendas. Given unanimous support from members, the Secretariat will convene a sub-group on Indigenous data governance and engagement on ECIC.

Objective: To provide an overview of ECIC analysis and to discuss the role of the Expert Advisory Body (EAB) and next steps.
The EAB brought up considerations relating to the scope of the project, such as expanding indirect costs, disease definitions and Indigenous data governance and engagement.
Next steps: The ECIC Secretariat will incorporate feedback from EAB members into their planning.

2026-05-11