Media Releases

The University of Toronto and The Scarborough Hospital announce new Centre for Integrative Medicine

September 17, 2014

Toron­to, ON — Today, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to (U of T) and The Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal (TSH) announced a part­ner­ship that will pro­vide new answers for the 74% of Cana­di­ans who are using some form of com­ple­men­tary and alter­na­tive med­i­cine, includ­ing tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese med­i­cine. Called the Cen­tre for Inte­gra­tive Med­i­cine (CIM), it will bring togeth­er researchers from U of T’s Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy and Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine along­side health care pro­fes­sion­als at TSH to pro­vide evi­dence-dri­ven prac­tices. Togeth­er, U of T and TSH will cre­ate a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry that will allow us to study ways to safe­ly and effec­tive­ly inte­grate evi­dence-informed com­ple­men­tary ther­a­pies and tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese med­i­cine with con­ven­tion­al med­ical care.

Led by Pro­fes­sor Lyn­da Bal­neaves, the Centre’s inau­gur­al direc­tor, CIM will focus on research, as well as out­reach to both patients and health care pro­fes­sion­als to help them make evi­dence-informed deci­sions about the use of com­ple­men­tary and alter­na­tive med­i­cine (CAM).

“A vast major­i­ty of Cana­di­ans are using some type of CAM. This includes dif­fer­ent prac­tices and prod­ucts, includ­ing nat­ur­al health prod­ucts, mas­sage, med­i­ta­tion and acupunc­ture, to name just a few. And many are doing so with­out con­sult­ing a health care pro­fes­sion­al,” explained Bal­neaves, who is also the KY and Bet­ty Ho Chair in Inte­gra­tive Med­i­cine at U of T. “The Centre’s role will be to explore how Cana­di­ans are using these ther­a­pies, how these ther­a­pies inter­act with oth­er care they are receiv­ing and to com­mu­ni­cate our knowl­edge to ensure they are used safe­ly and effec­tive­ly.”

The Cen­tre will take an inter­pro­fes­sion­al approach, bring­ing togeth­er sci­en­tists, physi­cians, phar­ma­cists, nurs­es, CAM prac­ti­tion­ers and oth­ers who work in the health care field. U of T’s Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy and Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine will be active­ly engaged in the sci­en­tif­ic research that will ground the Centre’s evi­dence-based approach.

“Because an over­whelm­ing num­ber of Cana­di­ans are using com­ple­men­tary and alter­na­tive med­i­cines, it is crit­i­cal that we under­stand how these prod­ucts and ther­a­pies work and how they inter­act with con­ven­tion­al care prac­tices and med­ica­tions,” said Pro­fes­sor Heather Boon, Dean of the Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy. “By under­tak­ing a rig­or­ous sci­en­tif­ic eval­u­a­tion of these ther­a­pies, we will be in a bet­ter posi­tion to under­stand what works – and what doesn’t – and pro­vide the evi­dence nec­es­sary to guide their prop­er use to a patient base that is eager to uti­lize these prod­ucts.”

A Clin­i­cal Hub will be estab­lished at TSH’s Birch­mount cam­pus that will help patients man­age their day-to-day health with an empha­sis on dis­ease pre­ven­tion, health pro­mo­tion and chron­ic dis­ease man­age­ment for con­di­tions such as dia­betes.

“The estab­lish­ment of this Cen­tre at our Birch­mount cam­pus is in keep­ing with The Scar­bor­ough Hospital’s com­mit­ment to serv­ing our diverse com­mu­ni­ty. It also ful­fills our mis­sion of pro­vid­ing an out­stand­ing care expe­ri­ence that meets the unique needs of each and every patient and our vision of being rec­og­nized as Canada’s leader in pro­vid­ing the best health care for a glob­al com­mu­ni­ty,” said Robert Biron, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of TSH.

A fundrais­ing cam­paign will soon be launched to sup­port the Cen­tre and its devel­op­ment.

“Already, this Cen­tre has attract­ed con­sid­er­able inter­est from our extend­ed com­mu­ni­ty who rec­og­nize the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion it can make to improv­ing our sys­tem of care here at home and around the world. Thanks to the gen­eros­i­ty of KY and Bet­ty Ho, we have been able to estab­lish a chair in this impor­tant field. But with fur­ther sup­port, we can estab­lish a Cen­tre that the Scar­bor­ough com­mu­ni­ty deserves and that is rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the world-class research for which U of T is known,” said Catharine White­side, Dean of Med­i­cine and Vice Provost, Rela­tions with Health Care Insti­tu­tions.

Phase one of the Centre’s devel­op­ment, which is already under­way, is focused on con­sult­ing the local com­mu­ni­ty to ensure CIM serves the needs of this area. It will also estab­lish the strong foun­da­tions need­ed for effec­tive clin­i­cal care and research. By spring 2015, the Cen­tre will launch a series of pilot projects that we meet the needs of the TSH com­mu­ni­ty and be ready to announce its long-term plans.

There will be an offi­cial launch of the Cen­tre at an event in Octo­ber. The details are:

Date:                     Fri­day, Octo­ber 17, 2014

Time:                     9:30 – 11:00 a.m.; remarks at 10:00 a.m.

Loca­tion:              Colonel Irene Stick­land Cen­tre, Birch­mount Cam­pus,
The Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal, 3030 Birch­mount Road, Toron­to, M1W  3W3

The event is open to media, but pri­or reg­is­tra­tion is required. To reg­is­ter, please con­tact Krista Lux­ton, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer, The Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal. Tel: 416–438-2911. Ext. 8090; Email: kluxton@tsh.to.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

 

Liam Mitchell                                                              Hol­ly-Ann Camp­bell

Asso­ciate Direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions                     Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Engage­ment

Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to          The Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal

Tel: 416–978-4672                                                       Tel: 416–438-2911 ext. 8308

Email: liam.mitchell@utoronto.ca                           Email: hocampbell@tsh.to