A health care crisis of this magnitude is always going to leave room for second guessing.

Was our medical supply chain caught off guard? Have we offshored too much of our medical equipment manufacturing? Was our public health spending misplaced? Shouldn’t have we been more prepared - did we learn nothing from SARS?

However, the time to armchair quarterback Canada’s COVID-19 response is after we all get through this crisis.

We see the devastating human cost of the pandemic every day, every hour. What we don’t want to lose sight of is the fact that our national response to this crisis has been breathtaking.

There are our heroic healthcare workers on the frontline, of course. Then there’s all the men and women who donated in record numbers after Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec made a public appeal. And how about Doug Ford, who rolled up his sleeves for an entirely different reason? Ontario’s premier drove to a warehouse in Markham to personally help load thousands of donated face masks on to the back of his pickup truck.

There’s also the uplifting news that 3,000 Canadian companies have reached out to offer their expertise and capacity to meet the country’s need for personal protective equipment. “We are seeing the best of what it means to be Canadian,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

We should all be proud of our nation’s response to the pandemic.

What has struck me is the health innovation that is being unleashed.

The Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu told a Senate committee: "If there’s any silver lining to this crisis whatsoever, it’s the rapidity at which I see provinces and territories moving toward innovation and the delivery of health care that I think will be one of the legacies of COVID-19."

Here are just a few examples of what the healthcare community is doing to combat the pandemic:

• Fredericton-based biotech company LuminUltra announced it will use its expertise to ramp up testing.
• Ontario’s research community has come together to try to find treatments for COVID-19.
• Virtual-care company Maple is providing online coronavirus screenings with live physicians.
• Ontario startup InputHealth launched an interactive online tool to track and screen patients during the outbreak.
• Machine-learning algorithms from Toronto-based Structura Biotechnology are playing a critical role in the search for a vaccine.
• MaRS has a great summary of companies “Using tech to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic.”

We should all be proud of our nation’s response to the pandemic.

While Canadians might be self-isolating and social distancing, the truth is we all haven’t come together like this in a long time. Our domestic healthcare sector has united under one shared common goal and the amount of innovation taking place as a result is truly staggering.

If your organization needs support or advice in these uncertain times, here’s where you can find the latest news, insights and resources related to COVID-19.