Ontario hospitals have ‘history of innovation’
Friday November 9, 2007 -- Natalie Miller
TORONTO— When it comes to innovation in healthcare, Ontario hospitals and healthcare workers have made their mark in this country and around the world, the president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) said.

The OHA’s HealthAchieve, one of the largest healthcare conferences in North America, provided the opportunity to celebrate best practices and innovation in Ontario healthcare. The event, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Nov. 5 to 7, attracted more than 8,000 people, 330 exhibitors and featured a lineup of prominent speakers. Innovation was one of the themes celebrated during this year’s conference.

“Ontario hospitals have had a history of innovation that has not only improved the delivery of healthcare in Canada,” said OHA President and CEO Hilary Short in a presentation, “our innovations have also changed health practices around the world.”

Short referred to the discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes by Frederick Banting and Charles Best in the 1920s, Dr. Jorge Filmus and his team’s discovery of the molecular marker that helps diagnose the most common type of liver cancer and also the use of the first regulated cardiac pacemaker in 1950. In more recent history, Kingston General Hospital developed the first electronic screening tool for SARS, a contagious respiratory disease, in 2003.

“Many historic achievements in the advancement of health science have happened right here in Ontario,” said Short. “In fact, wonderful things happen within the walls of all Ontario’s hospitals — every single day,” she says.

“One place that has had a particularly remarkable history of pediatric innovation and research breakthroughs is Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children,” she noted. “It’s a place that gives hope to so many children and their families, where health providers and researchers relentlessly seek new ways of making children healthier.”

Short’s presentation included a video about a youth who has had multiple heart procedures and is now leading a life without limits as a result of the care she received at Sick Kids. In particular, she received a trans-catheter pulmonary valve implant, a procedure much less invasive than open-heart surgery.

“The spirit of innovation inspires new techniques like the trans-catheter pulmonary valve implant,” said Short. She paid tribute to Dr. Lee Benson in particular, noting he “personifies innovation.”

Excellence, compassion, leadership and kindness were the other themes of this year’s conference. Together, these themes resonate throughout Ontario’s healthcare system and its workers, Short said.