CAHO Hospitals Calls for Partnerships to Maintain the Impact of Research Hospitals

2012 Research InfoSource Report indicates economic environment is having a tough impact on innovation investment in research hospitals 

TORONTO, Oct. 25, 2012 /CNW/ - The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario (CAHO) is pleased to see the continued strong showing of its members on Research InfoSource's Canada's Top 40 Research Hospitals 2012 Report released yesterday and calls for partnerships to sustain the impact of investment in Ontario's health research enterprise.

"Despite the economic and fiscal challenges all hospitals across Ontario and Canada face, research hospitals remain a vital component of our innovation system and produce a valuable return on investment in the form of better health care and new opportunities for economic growth," says Dr. Barry McLellan, President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and CAHO Chair. "I congratulate my colleagues and their institutions on their placement on the list of the top 40 research hospitals in Canada.  It is a great accomplishment."  Dr. McLellan concurred with the overall assessment of Canada's research hospitals as "research powerhouses" and increasingly important to our competitiveness.

CAHO believes the Top 40 Research Hospitals List is a helpful indicator of the size, scale and scope of research and development (R&D) activity in research hospitals across Canada. As an indicator, the results remind Ontario's research hospitals of the need to measure more accurately the sector's research and innovation and its direct contribution to making our populations healthier and our economy wealthier. The results also speak to finding ways to sustain the research and innovation leadership in the sector and the discovery that the CAHO community still needs to generate to make our lives better and our communities healthier.

CAHO continues to collaborate with key stakeholders in Ontario to concentrate on strategies that will ensure the sustainability and growth of a globally competitive health research enterprise. CAHO is supportive of a strategy that maximizes the impact of Ontario's investment for improved and more efficient health care and leverages outcomes in support of commercialization and economic growth opportunities.

Karen Michell, CAHO Executive Director noted that collaboration is required to sustain and grow the health research enterprise in Ontario in the midst of tight fiscal circumstances: "Ontario's research hospitals are a tremendous asset that has the potential to deliver what Ontarians want - better care at reduced costs and new opportunities for jobs and growth.  We need to work with our partners in government and across the sector to maximize and extend Ontario's return on investment in the health research enterprise for the benefit of the healthcare system and growing our innovation capacity.  CAHO's members are committed to this goal."

Fast Facts about Ontario's 24 Research Hospitals:

Ontario's research hospitals are world-class researchers, driving a health innovation engine that creates better and more efficient care for patients. CAHO members:

• Conduct over 80% of Ontario's publicly funded health research.
• Represent the 4th largest biomedical research centre in North America.
• Employ 10,000 researchers.
• Train more than 80% of undergraduate medical students, 90% of Ontario's medical residents and 99% of Ontario's clinical fellows.
• Train over 20,000 students every year across all disciplines, including nursing, pharmacy, social work, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
• Provide 65% of the most complex and resource intensive care in Ontario.
• Conduct 100% of transplants, 83% of neurosurgeries, and 78% of cardiac surgeries in Ontario
• Are home to ten out of 11 of the province's lead trauma centres.

About CAHO
The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario is the non-profit association of Ontario's 24 academic hospitals and their research institutes. CAHO provides a focal point for strategic initiatives on behalf of our member hospitals.  As research intensive hospitals, CAHO members are fully affiliated with a university medical or health sciences faculty. Our hospitals provide the most complex and urgent care, teach the next generation of health care providers and foster health care innovation derived from discovery research. For more information, visit www.caho-hospitals.com

SOURCE: Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario

For further information:

Chris Paterson
Director - Stakeholder Relations
416-205-1404
[e-mail]
www.caho-hospitals.com