Share this Story: Ground broken for new Sudbury research lab
Ground broken for new Sudbury research lab
Carol Mulligan
Nov 20, 2015 • November 20, 2015 • 3 minute read
The official ground-breaking for a 14,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory at the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada was a historic occasion, another of many medical milestones that will put Sudbury on the map, said speakers.
The first Canadian coronary bypass was performed here in 1968. The first use in Canada of a cell saver to transfuse a patient with his own blood was done in 1980. In 1984, a membrane oxygenator was used for the first time on a patient with Legionnaire's disease. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine opened in 2005.
Look for more landmarks in the coming years, said Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, chief executive officer and scientific director of AMRIC.
In just four years, AMRIC has been ranked 40th and then 36th out of the top 40 hospital research institutes in Canada. Those rankings validate the work AMRIC researchers do every day, Diaz-Mitoma told a crowd at the old St. Theresa School on Walford Road.
The transformation of the building into an efficient medical research centre comes with a price tag of $15 million. Both FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. contributed almost $5 million, the City of Greater Sudbury gave $750,000 and the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation $1 million.
Diaz-Mitoma said the AMRIC laboratory will give the organization the ability to attract more research talent to Sudbury.
Dr. Denis Roy, president and CEO of Health Sciences North, asked the rhetorical question, "Does research matter?" several times in his short speech.
Why invest in research when there are relentless demands on the health care system? he asked.
Roy called the discovery of insulin to treat diabetes one of the greatest discoveries in medicine, and it was developed in Canada.
Ask the thousands of patients who have had coronary bypass surgeries if research matters, said Roy.
"That was research done on our floors by our patients," said Roy of the work Dr. Paul Field pioneered at the former Sudbury Memorial Hospital in the late 1960s.
Research isn't just about medicine, said Roy. The virtual care program at Health Sciences North, with which AMRIC is affiliated, is another example of how research equals patient care by finding better ways to do things
Roy said research "is not just a thing you do. It's a mindset" you adopt.
Some questioned Roy when he came to Sudbury six years ago and vowed to turn the city's one-site hospital into the Harvard of the North. We're not just wishing to become that, said Roy. We are becoming it.
Sudbury Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre, representing FedNor, said the lab will create 35 new full-time jobs, including 30 jobs during the construction phase.
Sudbury Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault said AMRIC has come a long way in four years and urged Sudburians to be proud of what it has accomplished. "We need to brag about it," he said.
Mayor Brian Bigger said the city was pleased to support the project to the tune of $1.7 million. He said he was excited about developments in drug manufacturing stemming from research.
"We have the right people at the right time," he said.
Patient Terry Martyn told the audience he was a volunteer in a flu vaccine trial for seniors conducted by Dr. Janet McElhaney, senior researcher at AMRIC and the HSN Volunteer Association Chair in Geriatric Research.
Martyn attested that research isn't just academic. It has real-life applications "that will improve your life and mine."
At least half a dozen politicians and health-care leaders stuck ceremonial shovels in a pile of soil in front of the former school to mark the event. Construction of the new laboratory is expected to be complete in 2017.
carol.mulligan@sunmedia.ca
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