Health

Provides a one-stop source for information and resources on hot topics, issues and trends affecting the health industry, as well as access to information on our programs and services.

Our Group

Members of Miller Thomson’s Health Industry Group appreciate that legal advice is most effective when all aspects of an issue, including its context, are considered. For that reason, we have developed a seamless, integrated service delivery model that is unparalleled in Canada, and accesses the full complement of our firm’s legal and business resources.

Our Group comprises professionals from Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Québec — all of whom have a strong understanding of provincial regulation, as well as a keen appreciation of national health-related issues.

Our Clients

Our clients include many health services providers, as well as other related organizations:

• Hospitals
• Private health care providers
• Long-term care facilities
• Community health organizations
• Professional associations
• Health professionals
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Biotech companies
• Insurers
• Financial institutions

Our Expertise

Our Group members have extensive expertise in all legal areas of the health sector including institutional and professional healthcare providers, life sciences, biotech and bioengineering, pharmaceutical, research organizations and the financing of the health industry.

Our lawyers provide advice and opinion relevant to health policy and regulation, corporate governance and operations, professional staff privileges, clinical law, advocacy, government relations, real estate and construction, labour relations and employment, financing, fundraising, charities and foundations, taxation, technology, intellectual property and corporate and commercial law.

Along with depth in their respective disciplines, most team members have extensive experience working in the health industry or with health industry clients, and have committed all or most of their practice to this area. Many are regarded as thought leaders in their field. Through constant communication and cooperation, regular client feedback, continuing legal education, participation in industry associations and daily interaction with health sector professionals and executives, our lawyers, consultants and staff remain at the forefront of health law in Canada.

Our Services

Our firm provides some of the most advanced and unique legal service delivery solutions available:

Legal Retainer Program: Our Legal Retainer Program is an innovative concept in legal service delivery. Cost-effective and timely legal advice is important to health industry clients and our program is designed to offer clients immediate support for a set annual fee.

Legal Retainer Program subscribers are provided with telephone or written legal advice on routine matters. We maintain an extensive database of opinions ensuring that advice is consistent and provided without delay.

Educational Services: Our lawyers are committed to providing quality, added-value educational services to our health industry clients. To keep management and professional staff, employees and volunteers current with legislation, health policy and legal developments, we publish a number of electronic newsletters and articles. By way of our newsletter, Health Communiqué and biweekly Health Industry Updates, we communicate with our clients regularly, updating them on current health industry trends and on issues relating to legislation, policy and case law. We produce seminars throughout the year covering emerging health topics and offer our monthly health seminar series, Coffee Talk, by video and audio conference. We also develop tailor-made educational programs and workshops to suit your needs and interests and conduct these seminars at your organization. In addition, we participate in educational programs sponsored by hospitals, long-term care facilities, hospices, community care and professional associations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as law societies and bar associations.

Risk Management: We understand there is risk associated with virtually any activity undertaken in the health industry. Therefore, we go beyond traditional legal focus by assessing the circumstances and resources available in every situation to help our clients to identify risk factors and formulate strategies to deal with them. These may include financial and asset risk management. Adoption of risk management strategies is an effective and preventive means of avoiding potential liability and regulatory disputes.

Miltom Consulting Inc.: Miltom Consulting Inc. is a health care consulting service affiliated with Miller Thomson LLP. The philosophic approach we adopt in consulting projects allows us to bring together consultants with significant skills and experience in hospital planning, management, organizational development, human resources, labour relations and clinical performance. We provide consulting assistance to our clients in a number of service areas, including organizational and operational effectiveness, strategic planning assistance for maximum performance, organizational redesign and development, improvement of the governance process, enhanced management processes and labour management relations facilitation.