Welcome to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

A message to staff from the President & CEO:

It is my pleasure to officially welcome you to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Our future as a new and vibrant organization begins right now and you are an integral part of how we will achieve success.

Your commitment to excellence has built a stellar international reputation for Sunnybrook and has defined the vital role we play in the Ontario healthcare system. As you probably know from your work, in addition to caring for people in the GTA, many of our programs offer highly-specialized services which are unavailable in other communities. Essentially, patients, students, researchers and professionals from around the corner and across the globe arrive at our doors because of you.

By providing innovative and compassionate care, offering rewarding educational experiences and discovering the clinical best practices of tomorrow through our world-class research today, you have helped Sunnybrook become known as the place that is there for people when it matters most.

In fact, “When it Matters Most” is our new slogan and it speaks to what you do best. It means quite simply that you are there for our patients and their families, our students and your colleagues when they need you most. What’s so effective about this tag line is that it applies to every part of the organization and describes the “can do” culture you have created. Our slogan articulates why you make Sunnybrook such a special place. When people need us most, we’re there for them.

As you will see in the articles found in this newsletter, these are exciting times for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and we are pleased you have chosen to share them with us. Our capital development for the Emergency Department is about to get underway this spring. The four-floor addition on Mwing is moving ahead and we expect to break ground this fall. We hope to accelerate the timelines for the relocation of our Perinatal and Gynecology program and have everyone in their new home in M-wing by the fall of 2008. Planning for expanding the capacity of the Holland Orthopaedic and Arthritic Centre is moving ahead of schedule and we hope to begin this project in the very near future.

As we move forward our academic mission and full affiliation with the University of Toronto is stronger than ever and we will be building on that success, literally. You might recall that in addition to the Perinatal and Gynecology program, the M-wing development will house new facilities for leading-edge research in cardiac imaging and intervention, Canada’s most comprehensive breast cancer centre, the Toronto Angiogenesis Research Centre, and world-leading research programs in regenerative medicine and neurosciences. Each year we continue to provide learning opportunities for more than 2,600 students and conduct more than $80 million in research. In every sense of the term, Sunnybrook is an academic health sciences centre.

Our commitment to women’s health and the care of veterans will continue to be a priority for us and we have defined strategic programs in cancer, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, perinatal and gynaecology, neurosciences, aging and population health, and trauma and critical care. These programs are leaders in their field and are helping us achieve our vision of transforming healthcare.

I am proud of our new organization and energized by our new direction. We have been through quite a bit these past few years but these experiences have made our organization increasingly resilient and poised to create opportunities for our future growth. Together we will make Sunnybrook Canada’s premier academic health sciences centre.

Sincerely,
Leo N. Steven
President & CEO