One of the reasons we haven't done enough is that it's expensive to do what you're talking about. There's an excellent report from the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences on measuring impacts of health research at every level, starting with the basic outcomes, the papers that are published, to the more complex impact on longevity, on morbidity, on improvements and outcomes in various diseases.
L'objectif de l'innovation est d'augmenter la productivité et l'efficience de la prestation des soins de santé et de la recherche, et, en 2007, notre gouvernement a mis de l'avant une stratégie pour mobiliser le milieu scientifique et technologique au profit du Canada.