Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
The growing global significance of diseases of the brain and mind, including dementia, stroke, and depression, is not a secret. The World Health Organization reports that depression is now the leading cause of disability worldwide, and that in people over the age of 65, stroke and dementia are the medical conditions with the greatest burden to society. With respect to dementia, over half a million Canadians suffer from this disabling condition, and the prevalence is set to double in the next 20 years.
When the health ministers met at the G-8 dementia summit in December 2013 to discuss how to shape an effective international response to the growing challenges of dementia, they committed to: a call for greater innovation to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers, while reducing emotional and financial burdens; the ambition to identify a cure or disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025; and increase collectively and significantly the amount of funding for dementia research.
The vision of the brain sciences centre at Sunnybrook is to approach dementia, stroke, and depression, across the lifespan through a model of convergence, research embedded in care, a model tested and proven with remarkable success at Sunnybrook in the Odette Cancer Centre and the Schulich heart research program. At Sunnybrook we already provide local, regional, and national leadership for these three major neuro-psychiatric illnesses of our society. The brain sciences centre at Sunnybrook will enhance our proposed transformative role.
We are, of course, aware that the federal government does not directly fund the delivery of health care. This proposal is not about funding the delivery of health care. It is about creating an infrastructure that will enhance innovation and new discoveries that are relevant and beneficial to all Canadians, innovation that will have national and global impact. Bringing our model of convergence to fruition through the creation of a brain sciences centre will bring researchers together with specialists in neurology, psychiatry, neurosurgery, and neuro-radiology, to grow innovation. The centre will promote accelerated discovery and application of new cures and disease-modifying treatments, including unique diagnostic imaging capacity, genome analyses and drug development, and image-guided interventions, including novel models of drug delivery.
It will enhance networking. The centre will be part of a national network of brain sciences and brain health centres across Canada, including the brain health centre in Vancouver, enabling economies of scope and scale and accelerating national capacity. It will advance the development of commercial partnerships, create jobs, and help develop brain health-related companies. It will enhance care across the country and the globe by developing and evaluating new models of care. In so doing, it will protect vulnerable Canadians and their families. It will train and educate the next generation of brain science researchers and health care professionals. It will provide international recognition to the Government of Canada for not only taking a lead role in recognizing the burdens of these debilitating ailments, but for taking demonstrable action to create a better future.
The request of the federal government is to invest in the future for Canadians by contributing as close to $30 million as possible towards the estimated $60-million cost for this research embedded in care brain sciences centre. The Sunnybrook Foundation has committed to raising the balance.
This private-public partnership presents an unprecedented opportunity to mitigate the profound impact of the major illnesses of our time now and over the decades to come.
Thank you for your attention.