VGH to be home to new Centre for Hip Health and Accelerated Prostate Research

March 2004

Vancouver General Hospital will be the site for the world's first Centre for Hip Health, thanks to a multi-million dollar investment by the Canada Foundation for Innovation to the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (a research partnership between Vancouver Coastal Health and UBC) has been recognized for its excellence in research with the awarding of funds to support the development of the centre, along with a significant investment to enhance the Prostate Centre, also at Vancouver General Hospital.

Vancouver General Hospital will be the future site of a unique Centre for Hip Health where researchers will support innovative research programs to decrease the burden of hip fracture and hip osteoarthritis across BC, Canada, and the world. It will be the first international research centre to broadly focus on problems affecting the human hip by integrating researchers in various aspects of bone health, falls prevention, and osteoarthritis. The Centre will embrace a research scope from childhood to old age.

In addition, the Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, which is already the largest comprehensive research and treatment clinic of its kind in Canada, will receive a multi-million dollar boost to enhance its ability to translate research discoveries from the scientists' labs to patient cures.

Canada Foundation for Innovation awarded $5.2 million for the Centre for Hip Health, and $7.6 million for the Prostate Centre - a milestone for research at Vancouver Coastal Health and our academic partner the University of British Columbia according to Dr. Bernie Bressler, Vice President of Research at Vancouver Coastal Health and Director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

"This investment from CFI is the biggest and most exciting event that has occurred on the funding side of research at VGH for many years," he said. "CFI requires a rigorous peer review process with only 25% of all the applications submitted funded in this round. These funds will start a process that will change the face of research at Vancouver General Hospital."

The Canada Foundation for Innovation support represents 40% of required project funding. Researchers, with the support from VCHRI and UBC, will apply to the provincial government for a matching 40%. The remaining support will come from private sources and industry. CFI has also established a new fund called the Hospital Research Fund, where VCHRI will apply later this year to double the amount of today's announcement.

CFI President and CEO, Dr. David Strangway, said the investment of funds such as those announced in Ottawa earlier today clearly show that Canada is becoming a place where researchers want to be. "This CFI investment will further develop Canada's global reputation as a place where outstanding research and training is being conducted," he said.

CFI is an independent corporation established by the Government of Canada in 1997, which aims to strengthen the capability of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other not-for-profit institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development.

VCHRI is a joint venture between UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority that promotes development of new researchers and research activity.

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