The general population has a certain minimal awareness of the intensive use of antibiotics in human and animal health. Constant reports from travellers abroad have spread a level of consciousness that human travel and food/animal international trade led to increase of bacterial infections, and a concern of the spread among population causing major public health threat worldwide. The Canadian and Québec populations have seen in media reports the impact of COVID pandemics and ravages of bacterial infections. Patients have constantly been made aware of the challenges of following the rigorous follow-up in respecting the time of treatment and the failures caused by antimicrobial resistance. Overall, the general population and communities have realized the major roles and impact of the INSPQ-LSPQ government agencies and the crucial role of their laboratories in surveillance, diagnostic and their critical roles in public health surveillance.
The Quebec population realized the limitations in analysis, fast turn-around of data and capabilities in public health surveillance, highlighted in several reports on capabilities of public health agencies and the outstanding input and support these agencies provide to the population. The agencies need to be at the forefront of new technologies capable of acting more rapidly and the new genomic approaches will play this role. The development of an integrated user-friendly informatics systems giving information in a few clicks about which microbes is causing and infection and which therapy to recommend is a major innovation. The application can be used in real-time giving a diagnostic in a few hours. The social benefits include saving lives and dramatic reduction in costs and better Public Health surveillance. Overall, the implementation of the new technologies is an innovation in Public Health dramatically augmenting their throughput in surveillance, and an economic benefit of several millions a year.