The COEfficient The COEfficient - Capital Health

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COLLABORATING IN CARE New ‘living laboratory’ puts women and children first Wendy Beaudoin with three-year-old daughter Olivia and Dr. Thierry Lacaze, neonatologist and Acting Director of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute. THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA AND Capital Health have announced a joint commitment to create the region’s first-ever research institute dedicated to women and children’s health. Thanks to commitments of $37 million from our communities through the Stollery Children’s Hospital ($30 million) and Royal Alexandra Hospital ($7 million) Foundations, the new institute will be a potent force in the national research agenda in two critical fields. Clinicians will work with scientists across six University of Alberta faculties in the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute to study and treat the full range of women and children’s health issues, from diagnosing and treating illness in utero and developing new treatments for autism, epilepsy and other child health problems, to new services for mature women. The institute will consist of three linked research centres: 1. A children’s clinical research centre, to be located in the future Edmonton Clinic across 114 Street from the Walter C. Mackenzie Centre 2. A women’s clinical research centre, to be part of the future Lois Hole Hospital for Women within the Robbins Pavilion, being built on the Royal Alexandra Hospital site 3. A basic research centre, to be located within the future Discovery Centre being built on 87 Avenue just north of the University of Alberta Hospital site 10 CHQ ~ SUMMER 2006 www.capitalhealth.ca “These three centres will be the ‘life’ in the ‘living laboratory’ that we’re envisioning for these new facilities,” says Dr. Terry Klassen, Capital Health’s Regional Clinical Program Director for Child Health and University of Alberta Chair of Pediatrics. “This is the leading edge of health sciences, where we study, develop, apply and evaluate new treatments as we care for patients in real time. It’s an exciting model and nowhere else in Canada is it possible on the scale we’re building here.” “This is a great day for patients and all the different health professionals who care for them,” adds Dr. Wylam Faught, Site Chief for Women’s Health at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology for the University, at the May 24 news conference. “Women will have access to state-of-the-art care, and the work done here will benefit people right across Canada. The institute will not only build on many established strengths in the region but also help create new areas of expertise, like a mature women’s clinic at the Royal Alexandra.” Planning for the institute is being led by Dr. Thierry Lacaze, inaugural Acting Director. Dr. Lacaze is a neonatologist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and Research Director in the University of Alberta Department of Pediatrics. He was recruited to Edmonton in 2003 from the University of Paris. The institute will include four new endowed research Chairs – starting with Dr. Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, who is joining the Stollery team this summer from McMaster University. Dr. Zwaigenbaum is known internationally as the author of a 2005 study that pinpointed signs of incipient autism in infants as young as 12 months, paving the way for earlier and more effective intervention. The institute will be devoted to making life better for patients like three-year-old Olivia Beaudoin, who dropped in to the news conference along with mom Wendy, a nurse at the Stollery. Wendy told reporters she’s grateful for Olivia’s care – which started with a premature birth and eventually included five neurosurgeries. “Nobody should have to live their first year in the hospital, and so I think this is a huge step as far as research money to develop different techniques and different equipment. As a community, we need to strive for no surgeries for children, and this is a huge step in that direction.” Capital Health President and CEO, Sheila Weatherill, says Alberta is in the midst of a “baby boom” as young families move here for jobs, so the institute couldn’t be coming at a better time. “Our region’s population has grown eight per cent in the last five years; but births in our hospitals are up by 15 per cent, partly due to steadily growing numbers of moms and babies referred from northern Alberta, the Northwest Territories and elsewhere.” In total, she says, the region expects about 15,000 babies to be born here this year. PAT MARSTON/CAPITAL HEALTH
Community Pride Inspires the Name STEPHEN WREAKES/CAPITAL HEALTH the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic draw patients from around the world, and in five years time, so will the Edmonton Clinic. In 2011, Capital Health and the University of Alberta will officially open the model for future academic health centres in North America and highlight Edmonton’s place on the health care map. Formerly called the Health Sciences Ambulatory Learning Centre, the new name is the strategic outcome brainstormed by University of Alberta President, Indira Samarasekera, and Capital Health President and CEO, Sheila Weatherill, who says, “The name Edmonton Clinic reflects the pride we have in our community.” The $577-million clinic will concentrate health services, such as day clinics and diagnostic services from the University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital, into a “one-stop” family-centred complex. The result will free up space on existing wards and about 200 inpatient hospital beds. In addition to health services, the clinic will create interdisciplinary educational environment for 6,000 students from the university’s health sciences faculties. It is an innovative solution to the needs of a maturing capital region. Sheila elaborates, “This plan will help to ensure that we have the beds and trained health service providers to meet the current and future health needs of our growing and aging population.” The Edmonton Clinic will serve approximately one million patients annually. Deb Gordon, Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital, says, “The Edmonton Clinic will integrate first-rate facilities, the electronic health record, and sophisticated scheduling systems so rural patients receive expert testing, advice and treatment quickly.” Decreased waiting times will see more patients being treated, and patients with complicated conditions won’t have to travel as much. The 168,000 square-metre clinic is in the design stage, which will take about a year. “Detailed planning is complete and now Capital Health and the University of Alberta are assembling teams of designers and builders,” says Brent Skinner, Chief Planning Officer for Capital Health. “Because the centre has a separate design team for both clinic and academic components, we’ve appointed a master architect, Mark Henderson of Callison Architecture, to ensure the design teams are working towards a common vision.” Construction of the Edmonton Clinic will be tendered in phases with the first stage beginning in spring 2007. The clinic will be located on the west side of 114 Street, next to the LRT station and connected to the University of Alberta Hospital by a pedway. www.capitalhealth.ca SUMMER 2006 ~ CHQ 11
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