This past year was a year like no other. It has challenged us, made us adapt to new realities and inspired us to never give up. But most importantly, it has made us proud of what The Ottawa Hospital can achieve together in a time of great crisis.
The pandemic has been global in its scale, but personal in its impact. Every one of us has been affected in deeply individual ways. We have all faced loss – loss of normalcy, loss of control, loss of certainty – and some of us have lost loved ones. It would have been easy for those losses to divide us. But the past year has shown us that even in a time of great loss, we stand united and more committed than ever to our vision of providing world-class, compassionate care that we would want for our loved ones.
We are incredibly humbled by the resilience that staff and physicians have shown during this pandemic. Together, we have adapted to changes in how we live, how we connect, how we work, and how we provide care to our patients. We are equally grateful for the amount of support that we have received from our community. Every card, every sign, every wave has meant the world to us.
It is this spirit of teamwork and devotion to our community’s well-being, which we have fostered over this past year, that will help us build the future of health care in our city. Our new Civic development will incorporate many lessons learned from our COVID-19 response, prioritize staff and patient wellness, celebrate diversity and promote environmental responsibility. The state-of-the-art facility will be a nationally recognized hub for research and innovation, where our team will care for the people of our region and beyond with skill and compassion for generations to come.
This year has shown us that when we work together, we can overcome tremendous challenges, adapt quickly to support our community and achieve new firsts in care, research and education. We are so proud to be part of this community, and we look forward to venturing into the future of health care together.
Katherine Cotton
Chair, Board of Directors,The Ottawa Hospital
Cameron Love
President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital
As we reflect on the past year, we are immensely proud of how everyone at our Research Institute has risen to the enormous challenge of COVID-19. Our researchers, trainees and staff have all made sacrifices to cope with physical distancing, masking and working from home. The new reality meant many research projects had to slow down or be paused. At the same time, we were able to launch more than 60 new COVID-19 research projects, including 15 clinical trials. Several of these projects have produced important results that have improved care not only for our patients in Ottawa, but also for countless others around the world.
Despite the pandemic, our researchers continued to make discoveries over the past year in many other areas that are also having a profound impact. For example, we developed a simple algorithm that can predict when a mini-stroke is likely to lead to a major stroke – a finding that could save lives and make our health care system more efficient. We also led a world-first clinical trial that showed that blood cancer patients don’t need nearly as many blood transfusions as previously thought – a finding that could spare patients from unnecessary risks and help to conserve our precious blood supply.
Our studies are also providing new hope in areas such as Alzheimer’s, autism, kidney disease and CAR-T cell immunotherapy for cancer.
Our world-class core research resources, such as our Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre and Ottawa Methods Centre, played a key role in many of these discoveries, and also helped us quickly pivot to help in the global fight against COVID-19.
We’re proud that we continue to rank among the top five hospitals in Canada for peer-reviewed funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and for overall research funding. We look forward to continued success and growth as we move forward with our strategic planning process and New Civic development.
We thank all our researchers, staff, trainees, volunteers and patient partners for their dedication and hard work. We also thank our partners at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital Foundation as well as our many generous donors.
Katie Lafferty
Chair, Board of Directors, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Dr. Duncan Stewart
CEO and Scientific Director, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Executive Vice-President, Research, The Ottawa Hospital
Professor, University of Ottawa
When we wrote to you in last year’s Annual Report, we were reflecting on the first few months of a novel virus that had gripped our city. In those early days of the pandemic, we focused on adapting to and navigating through so many unknowns.
Within weeks of COVID-19 arriving in Ottawa, the community rallied in the most inspirational ways. You donated PPE, brought food for our healthcare workers, and donated generously to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, which has provided funding for over 60 innovation and research projects looking to address the impact of the virus on our patients, the community, and our world.
As vaccines continue to roll out across our region we can start to think about what a new “normal” might look like. For our hospital and our community, what does the future of healthcare look like? The Ottawa Hospital Foundation is committed to supporting the hospital as it tackles the most challenging cases and the most pressing healthcare needs, while also preparing for the possibility of a future pandemic.
That’s why the new Civic development on Carling Avenue is so critical. Our current Civic Campus, which is nearing its 100th birthday, was built in the years immediately following the 1918 flu pandemic. When it opened, insulin had only just been discovered and penicillin wouldn’t be introduced for another four years. Think of how far we’ve come since then. Now, we are home to the most advanced biotherapeutics lab in the country, we are leading the world in using living cells and viruses to treat diseases like cancer, and the diagnostic tools we’ve developed are being used in emergency rooms and taught in medical schools worldwide. It’s time for a building that matches the capabilities of our people.
Together, we will turn this vision into reality. We look forward to bringing you updates on the redevelopment plans and our fundraising campaign as it takes shape and launches publicly. But for now, we are a city that is still healing and doing our best to put an end to this virus.. Thank you for the many ways you have sacrificed this past year and for how you have so generously supported our hospital.
Tim Kluke
President and CEO, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation
Michael Runia
Chair of the Board of Directors, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation