The COEfficient The COEfficient - Capital Health

BEST PRACTICES
ABACUS Brings Diversity of Professionals
and Technologies Under One Roof
Artistic rendering of ABACUS
The Alberta Cardiovascular
and Stroke Research Centre
(ABACUS) is a new “research
hospital within a hospital.”
Located in the lower level
of the Mazankowski Alberta
Heart Institute, it’s the only
Canadian research centre of
its kind physically integrated
into an acute care setting.
It will assemble scientists, health care
professionals, clinicians and trainees
under one roof to focus on research
into the prevention, detection and cure
for cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Heart disease, stroke, and blood vessel
or vascular disease make up cardiovascular
disease – the leading cause of
death in Canadian women and men.
“The facility is what the Canada
Institutes of Health Research envisions
as the optimum way of doing research,”
says Dr. Stephen Archer, Scientific
Director of the centre. “ABACUS is
a collection of all things needed for
a research hospital.”
The facility includes an area for
clinical research on heart attack and
stroke patients, a basic science lab
to study disease at a cellular level
and a clinical trials area where new
drugs and protocols are tested. Soon
to follow is a wireless classroom.
The $20 million ABACUS Research
Centre, scheduled to open this fall, has
been supported by the University of
Alberta Hospital Foundation, Canada
Foundation for Innovation, and both
federal and provincial governments.
ABACUS complements the vision
of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart
Institute for a future where cardiovascular
disease is no longer the
leading cause of death in Canada
and the best health care is available
here in Alberta. It does so by pushing
the research envelope to find new
and better ways to prevent and
treat heart disease.
Its location in the heart institute will
enable researchers to actually be able
to study patients in the middle of
their cardiovascular event in a hospital
setting. Patient’s medical needs can
be tended to while researchers study
their event as it is happening.
“It’s a hot first,” says Dr. Archer.
“The design of ABACUS is both
philosophical and practical, and
will knock down barriers between
biology, radiology, cardiology and
neurology.”
www.capitalhealth.ca SUMMER 2006 ~ CHQ 17