Life-saving boost for heart & stroke research
Sunnybrook's stroke research is getting a significant boost as part of an unprecedented $300-million gift to leading Canadian research centres from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
The multi-year commitment will help Sunnybrook researchers accelerate their work into discovering better ways to detect, diagnose and treat stroke and cardiac conditions — and moving them into clinical practice.
"Scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute have shared a long and effective partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation. This pledge will deepen that relationship, so that — and this is what matters — we can move results into patient care faster," said Dr. Michael Julius, Vice-President of Research at Sunnybrook.
As part of the newly formed Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Leadership Circle, Sunnybrook is one of 18 centres to benefit from this gift. Though the foundation has contributed more than $1.35 billion to research in its 60-year history, this is its largest commitment.
"Simply put, there's an urgent need to save more lives faster and that's why the foundation has brought together the Research Leadership Circle," said David Sculthorpe, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. "This $300-million commitment will allow our partners an unprecedented ability to plan major research projects, foster greater collaboration and attract even more of the world's best researchers within and outside of Canada to fight these insidious diseases."
Heart disease and stroke account for almost 30 per cent of all deaths a year in Canada. Every seven minutes someone dies from heart disease and stroke — that's nearly 69,000 people annually. These diseases are also a major drain on the Canadian economy, resulting in more than $20 billion spent each year in physician services, hospital costs, lost wages and decreased productivity.