Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to address you today.
I have structured my presentation on our proposal to create an innovative brain sciences centre at Sunnybrook around four questions.
First, why is it important at this time to be focusing even more attention on diseases of the brain and mind?
Disorders of the brain, including stroke, dementias, and brain tumours, and disorders of the mind, including depression and anxiety disorders, are intimately interconnected, and represent the greatest health care challenges of the coming generation. By 2030 the social and economic burden of diseases of the brain and mind will eclipse all other diseases combined.
Second, what is behind the concept of a brain sciences centre?
Disorders of the brain and mind cross many disciplines, and cannot be fully understood through the work of just one clinical or research specialty. Sunnybrook's brain sciences program is guided by the philosophy that only through cross-discipline and interprofessional collaboration will we find answers to these disorders that plague so many.
Our psychiatric and neuroscience experts will work side by side in a collaboration of education, research, and patient care in a world-class brain sciences centre in the heart of one of Canada's leading academic health sciences centres. This innovative initiative will create a different kind of facility, one that will mitigate the stigma of mental illness through its enhanced integration with the mainstream of health care. Research and education will be embedded directly into the leading-edge treatment offered at the centre.
The establishment of an innovative brain sciences centre will send a clear message: those suffering from disorders of the brain and mind are no different from those with heart disease or cancer, and they deserve the best comprehensive care possible within one of the country's best health sciences centres.
Third, why site a world-class brain sciences centre at Sunnybrook?
One of Canada's largest research and teaching hospitals, Sunnybrook delivers care to more than 1.2 million patients a year. Sunnybrook's strategic priorities are internationally renowned for delivering highly specialized care, and leading in the discoveries and innovations they make, the teaching and learning opportunities they provide, and the unparalleled level of care they deliver.
We have a track record of leadership in disorders of the brain and mind, including our mood and anxiety program, our youth bipolar program, the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre, the Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, and the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance.
We are developing and applying new technology to cure the ravages of diseases of the central nervous system. Technology developed at Sunnybrook enables neurosurgeons to see through the skull and into the brain, and then destroy diseased tissue with extraordinary precision without making a single scalpel cut.
Next up is technology that immediately stops strokes as they're happening and prevents dementia from advancing. Our scientists have developed non-invasive methods to deliver therapies into the brain, including stem cell therapy, gene therapy, and immune therapy to treat disease otherwise untreatable. Sunnybrook is the only place in the world bringing this all together.
Finally, what is the ask and the value proposition?
The total cost of the transformative infrastructure to bring the brain sciences centre to life is $60 million. The ask of the Government of Canada is for a $30-million investment, with the remaining $30 million coming from a combination of private philanthropy and provincial participation.
What's the value proposition? It's creating the only facility in eastern Canada that seamlessly incorporates all aspects of mental health and related brain sciences under one roof; advancing the development of a national network of brain sciences centres of excellence, including the University of British Columbia's Centre for Brain Health; expanding and building new linkages across Canada for research, education, and treatment; and finally, leveraging current collaboration between Sunnybrook's brain sciences program and such other leading research centres as UBC's Centre for Brain Health and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Calgary.
In summary, we're dedicated to addressing the health care needs of the brain and the mind, today and tomorrow, in this unique multidisciplinary facility.
Thank you.