Slow purchasing processes that focus on price rather than value—and are too specific about what governments want to buy rather than what problems they want to solve—are stultifying improvements in Canadian health care, the Competition Bureau said in a new report. (The Logic)

Talking point: The bureau’s second in a series of market-study reports on health care said that the provincial governments and agencies that buy everything from bandages to MRI machines understandably want to make sure they’re getting what they pay for. But long procurements and demands that suppliers prove their financial stability mean favouring big, well-resourced companies, the report said. Overly specific requirements, it added, can rule out clever solutions to old problems and even whole business models, like software sold by subscription. Getting Canadians the best health technology and services means “a rethink of historical government procurement policy,” the bureau concluded.