Dear Colleagues,
On March 4, 2010 we are holding a celebration to mark the groundbreaking for the Krembil Discovery Centre, the new research building at Toronto Western Hospital. The building will provide a new home for research at TWH and a new home for Rehabilitation Services (RS), UHN's health service for Ontario's injured workers. RS has grown substantially over the years and has played a fundamental role in our ability to start construction on this new facility.
This issue of UHNews describes what will go on within the building once we are ready to open in 2013. It is a facility that is purpose-built for research and it will enable UHN to continue to retain and attract the brightest scientific talent available with a focus on the neurosciences and research that supports the very best way to rehabilitate injured workers. We also anticipate that the Tanz Centre for Neurosciences, presently housed at the University of Toronto, will move to the new site, creating a powerhouse of capability at the TWH site.
This project has been some years in the making, from the time it was a 'gleam in the eye' known as Project Venus — the sister to MaRS which stands at the corner of College and University Avenue — to this month when the ground will be broken on the project. The earliest dreamers were Catherine Zahn, Justine Jackson, Kathy Sabo, Chris Paige, our Neuroscientists, Neurologists and Neurosurgeons and myself- but the dream became a reality when Bob and Linda Krembil and their family came forward with a donation of $30 million. With that contribution in place, a variety of things could happen and the pace picked up.
Chris Paige and his group in Research put together a UHN-wide proposal to the Canada Foundation for Innovation which was successful to the tune of $231 million. Dr. Gerald Halbert, one of the most committed fundraisers in the history of Toronto General & Toronto Western Hospital Foundation, rallied an incredible group of volunteers for the campaign, all of whom have my admiration and thanks for their efforts. Rehabilitation Solutions, through an innovative model of care and reinvestment, has contributed $36 million to the project, allowing them to celebrate their successful funding of a new working environment for their patients, staff and researchers.
The Board of Trustees of UHN and I have supported the Krembil Discovery Centre from the beginning. We see it as critical to our ability to continue as one of the most successful research hospitals in the country and regard KDC as a significant contribution to building the City of Toronto as a significant biomedical hub.
