Thank you.
I want to introduce Dr. Brad Wouters. He's a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and executive vice-president of the University Health Network in Toronto.
The Terry Fox Research Institute, or TFRI, supports cancer research by investing money raised by the three million-plus Canadians who participate in the Terry Fox Run each September. Based on the advice of international experts, we fund world-class Canadian teams of scientists and physicians to pursue cutting-edge research to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
In the past two years, TFRI has embarked on a new and significant project. We have taken steps with our partners to build a Marathon of Hope cancer centres network. This is a powerful, collaborative platform to take full advantage of scientific advances from disruptive technologies such as the mapping of the human genome, high-power computing, artificial intelligence, and high-resolution imaging, so that these and other advances can be applied to benefit cancer patients. The large amount of complex data generated is rationalized so that the right treatment can be given to the right patient at the right time. This is what we call precision medicine.
Precision medicine offers a future in which today's miracles become tomorrow's standard of care. Precision medicine will improve outcomes for all Canadians and will help us spend our health care dollars wisely.
Our Canadian health care system has real advantages for collecting and sharing data. Nevertheless, we are faced with significant challenges at the jurisdictional, cultural and geographic level. TFRI has launched a pilot project to learn how to find solutions to these challenges and how to grow the Marathon of Hope cancer centres network and put it on a solid footing. We have co-invested with the B.C. cancer agency and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre to undertake a $12-million pilot project to see how two top Canadian cancer centres can share real-world data across institutional and provincial boundaries.
In a similar way, we have co-invested in a $6.5-million pilot project in Montreal involving four hospitals, three research institutes and two universities to learn how such a consortium can work together. In the coming months, we will be initiating a pilot project on the Prairies and in Atlantic Canada.
We are ready to launch the Marathon of Hope cancer centres network, where we will take all we have learned from the pilot project to develop proper procedures and data governance models. At the same time, the Terry Fox Foundation and our partner hospital foundation are pledging 50% of the funds necessary to build this network over the next five years, to the tune of $150 million.
We are asking the federal government to match with the other 50% and provide $150 million over the next five years. Funding this network will allow the federal government to play its proper leadership role in health care by supporting innovation.
Canada must take the lead in precision medicine. We cannot rely on profiting from data generated by other countries. The network will ensure gender equality and ensure that people from all regions of Canada are represented in the precision medicine database. The high-quality database collected by the network on a genetically diverse population, including new immigrants and indigenous peoples, will become an incredible national asset. It will enable deep learning and catalyze home-grown innovation. It will attract investments by entrepreneurs and by biotech and pharma industries worldwide.
Canada is really blessed because we have Terry Fox. The Fox family supports this proposal and has endorsed the use of the Marathon of Hope branding to bring us together to build this Team Canada of cancer research and to really become a world leader in precision medicine. With this Marathon of Hope network, we will have the road map to cure cancer and fulfill Terry's dream.
Thank you.