OTTAWA – The University of Ottawa Heart Institute has celebrated the opening of a multi-year expansion project which will provide, it says, the most sophisticated and technologically advanced cardiovascular care in Canada.

The Heart Institute will now make use of some of the most innovative solutions in modern medicine, including the da Vinci Surgical System, a surgical robot that facilitates minimally invasive procedures for the patient and requires far less recovery time.

Life-saving suites will also be equipped with Philips’ Azurion Image Guided Therapy equipment, the largest installation of its kind in the world, allowing clinical teams to confidently perform a wide routine of complex procedures.

“This is the most significant expansion in the history of the Heart Institute,” said Dr. Thierry Mesana (pictured), president and CEO of the Heart Institute. “Our new facility will not only reinforce our cardiovascular care, research, and training capacities, but it will also ensure our patients continue to receive world-class care, from an extraordinary team evolving in a state-of-the-art environment. This is our promise.”

The Heart Institute’s new critical care facility features:

• more than 145,000 sq. ft. of added space;
• five operating rooms, including one hybrid OR, and one shelled-in operating room for future use;
• nine catheterization and electrophysiology laboratories; and
• an additional surgical critical care unit for 27 beds.

With the expansion, and the transfer of patients and teams scheduled for the upcoming Easter-long weekend, the Heart Institute is now ready to move forward with the next phases of redevelopment work at its original facility, including:

• the renovation of approximately 59,000 sq. ft. of space;
• the relocation and expansion of the Cardiac Imaging Department, the Prevention and Wellness Office, and the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre; and
• the redesign and renovation of the original building’s main lobby.

“Our community’s heart built this building and the heart of this building is our people and their dedication to the hearts in this community,” said Paul LaBarge, chair of the Heart Institute’s Board of Directors.

“The City of Ottawa is fortunate to be home to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and to its new Critical Care Tower,” said Jim Watson, Mayor, City of Ottawa. “This new state-of-the-art health facility will be instrumental in providing the highest quality healthcare to patients from Ottawa and across the country.”

Philips said that seven labs at OHI will feature the company’s newest technology in Canada – Azurion combined with intravascular ultrasound and clinical informatics – for performing a range of cardiac interventions. Azurion is a next generation image-guided therapy platform that features a state-of-the-art ergonomic design, with an easy-to-use touch screen intuitive user interface enabling clinicians to confidently perform a wide range of routine and complex procedures.

Azurion also features an enhanced flat-panel detector, and Philips’ newly developed ConnectOS for the seamless integration of real-time information from all relevant technologies in the interventional lab. All of these components work together to deliver high image quality at ultra-low X-ray dose and real-time image processing on multiple work spots within the cardiac interventional suite. Parallel working enables the team of clinicians to complete different tasks simultaneously in the interventional lab, saving valuable time without compromising quality of care.

In addition to these image-guided therapy solutions, Philips has provided the UOHI’s new Cardiac Surgery intensive care unit with a new patient monitoring network consisting of 22 Philips IntelliVue MX800 and central surveillance stations. This gives healthcare providers a holistic view of their patients’ status, allowing them to make more informed decisions at the point of care.

About the University of Ottawa Heart Institute

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute has flourished into one of Canada’s most distinguished heart health centres for the unparalleled care it provides to its patients, a world-renowned research Institute that brings science from bench to bedside, and the country’s main influencer when it comes to preventing heart disease. Its promise remains the very pillar on which it was built: Always putting patients first.