Infrastructure

OTTAWA – In a matter of weeks, spurred by the COVID-19 crisis, The Ottawa Hospital has gone from 3,000 active users of the Teams platform to 5,000. Teams is enabling clinicians and staff throughout the multi-site hospital to work more closely, even when apart, through the use of the platform’s secure instant texting, group communications, document sharing, and videoconferencing. Read More

HAMILTON, Ont. – Hamilton Health Sciences, one of Canada’s premier teaching and research hospitals, has entered into a strategic relationship with Siemens Healthineers in Canada worth approximately $270 million. For a contract lifetime of 15 years, with the option to extend the partnership for an additional 10 years, Siemens Healthineers will help Hamilton Health Sciences manage its medical imaging equipment and assist the hospital in raising the quality of care for patients. Read More

TORONTO – Philanthropists and business leaders Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman (pictured) joined University of Toronto President Meric Gertler, Chancellor Rose Patten, Vector Institute President and CEO Garth Gibson and other university and community leaders to break ground on the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre. Read More

FREDERICTON, N.B. – The New Brunswick government is looking at ways to centralize hospital laboratories, including a proposal that would see the number of facilities slashed by more than half. A request for proposals in November is aimed at finding private-sector management consultants who can develop a plan to consolidate 20 hospital labs into as few as seven. Read More

TORONTO – Ontario announced the province will invest up to $60 million to support the construction of the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre, a new, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to brain and mental health at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Read More

MONTREAL – The massive computer crash at the McGill University Health Centre earlier this month was caused by two malfunctions in quick succession, rendering the back-up system powerless and resulting in the cancellation of a dozen surgeries as well as medical procedures involving nearly 40 other patients. Read More

WINNIPEG – A massive, province-wide online health system crash occurred in Manitoba the first week of September, incapacitating computers for about 36 hours. The outage was triggered by one server going down, Manitoba’s health minister says, followed by a chain of failures that brought down more than 60 systems in every regional health authority in the province. Read More

TORONTO – An unprecedented gift of $100 million has been donated by the Peter Gilgan Foundation to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). This is the largest single gift ever to SickKids. Together with donations made to other hospitals and healthcare organizations to date, this makes Peter Gilgan and the Peter Gilgan Foundation the largest benefactor to healthcare in Canada. Read More