The Hospital for Sick Children on University Avenue in Toronto, on April 26, 2017.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
A network of Toronto cardiac-health research and treatment organizations has received a $90-million donation to expand genetic testing, develop digital and wearable tools and further reduce re-hospitalizations after heart failure.
The funding will go to the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR), a research partnership combining expertise from the Hospital for Sick Children, University Health Network (UHN) and the University of Toronto.
The donation comes from the Rogers Foundation, a charity established by the late Ted Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications Inc., and Rogers co-founder Loretta Rogers, who passed away in June. The foundation established the centre with a $140-million initial donation in 2014.
The three research partners have together committed to raising an additional $94.2-million to match the Rogers Foundation’s donation, Sick Kids Foundation spokesperson Sandra Chiovitti said in an e-mail
The funds will go toward studying the causes of heart disease using artificial intelligence and machine-learning, expanding its genomics-based diagnosis process, and improving the identification of the genetic causes of cardiomyopathy and congenital heart disease, according to the release. The donation will also fund startups working on heart-failure care, and develop the centre’s digital health platforms and wearable tools for its patients.
The centre’s executive director Dr. Mansoor Husain said in the release that the new funding will help “keep more patients at home, prevent tragic and sudden deaths, and improve overall patient health and well-being.” As a result of the work done by the centre, he said, rehospitalizations at UHN following heart failure have been reduced by 50 per cent.
Martha Rogers, chair of the Rogers Foundation, said the work of the TRCHR was championed by family matriarch Loretta. “We’re proud to support the work of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, which was passionately championed by our late mother Loretta from its infancy and reflects her and Ted Rogers’s spirit of innovation, ideals, and vision of cutting-edge care for all,” she said in the release.