Your Health Matters: fall 2019

ROYAL COLUMBIAN HOSPITAL FOUNDATION MAGAZINE

Your Health Matters FALL/WINTER 2019 EDITION IN THIS ISSUE

+ CRITICAL CARE

FOR A THIRD OF BC An unprecedented $1.35 billion redevelopment puts Royal Columbian in the spotlight

+ BRINGING BASILICA TO CARDIAC CARE Royal Columbian becomes first in BC to perform new approach for failing heart valves

+ TRAUMA ABCs Prioritizing a young man’s injuries following highway crash

+ INVESTING IN IDEAS A unique approach to philanthropy is tapping into the hospital’s entrepreneurs Acute Care Tower preliminary design concept

THIS MAGAZINE BROUGHT TO YOU WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM

THE NEXT PHASE As we get ever so closer to opening the new Mental Health and Substance Use Wellness Centre in April 2020, we are fortunate we can also get excited about a next phase in Royal Columbian Hospital’s unprecedented $1.35 billion redevelopment.

In this issue of Your Health Matters, we explore a few of the highlights of phase 2 of our redevelopment. The new, multi-storey Acute Care Tower will be a transformative addition to the hospital that will create a new main entrance, a new Emergency department and several floors of technologically advanced care, designed to serve our patients’ needs with compassion and innovation.

In addition, we are pleased to present our annual Report to Donors. Across two pages, we feature an assortment of equipment we have purchased with the help of generous donors.

As always, we have included some remarkable patient stories that demonstrate the exceptional work of our medical team. We remain forever grateful to those who share their experiences with us.

Finally, we would like to take the opportunity to recognize our former board chair Doug Eveneshen, whose term as chair has ended after five years. Doug, who continues to serve on our board, has put in countless hours to support the work of the Foundation and help raise millions of dollars for Royal Columbian. We are immensely thankful for his leadership and passion, and the Foundation is poised for new levels of success because of his contributions.

Tom Corsie

Chair, Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation

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Jeff Norris

President & CEO, Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation

CONTENTS VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 2

EDITOR Jason Howe CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jerald Walliser & Simon Hayter LAYOUT & DESIGN Gary Slavin COVER DESIGN Paula Heal PUBLISHED BY New Westminster Record Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation Board of Directors

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Chair: Tom Corsie Vice Chair: Cameron Belsher Treasurer: Catherine Ruby Secretary: Jennifer Podmore Russell President and CEO: Jeff Norris Directors: Dr. Sukh Brar, Frank Butzelaar, Doug Eveneshen, Meldy Harris, Steve Osachoff, Farid Rohani, Dr. William Siu, Emily Taylor, Norm Taylor, Rana Vig, Fred Withers

We welcome your comments on Your Health Matters magazine.

Please email info@rchfoundation.com or write to us c/o Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation, 330 East Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC V3L 3W7.

Established in 1978, Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation raises millions of dollars annually to purchase medical equipment, fund innovative programs, and support training and research. To donate, please visit www.rchfoundation.com or call 604-520-4438.

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Greetings

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Inspired giving

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Gift in passing

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How legacy giving can make an impact into the future

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Critical care for a third of BC Report to donors

Bringing basilica to cardiac care Royal Columbian becomes first in BC to perform new approach for failing heart valves

An unprecedented $1.35 billion redevelopment puts Royal Columbian in the spotlight

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Skating through danger

The importance of bystander CPR and AED during cardiac arrest

Behind-the-scenes briefs

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Trauma ABCs

Prioritizing a young man’s injuries following highway crash

Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation Chair Tom Corsie and Foundation President and CEO Jeff Norris

With the help of donors like you, we are able to purchase lifesaving equipment each year

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Investing in ideas

A unique approach to philanthropy is tapping into the hospital’s entrepreneurs

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View from the top

Dr. Victoria Lee leads Fraser Health’s strategic direction and operations.

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INSPIRED GIVING

Donors can be proud of the latest accomplishment of Royal Columbian Hospital’s cardiac team. The cardiac cath lab now performs more angioplasties than any other hospital in Canada, while having among the best survival rates. Donors have provided generous support for the cath lab, including $3.3 million in recent years for a full upgrade of its equipment. The hospital’s cardiac program started 50 years ago with its first ever heart catheterization in November 1969.

The Weston family were among the VIPs as the hospital’s oncology clinic officially opened its new location on the 3rd floor of Royal Columbian’s Health Care Centre building last spring. The family made a generous gift to the program in loving memory of Chris J. Weston to honour the tremendous care he received at Royal Columbian.

For the latest Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation news, follow us:

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By subscribing to our monthly e-newsletter at www.rchfoundation.com

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On Facebook: www.facebook.com/ RoyalColumbian

Royal Columbian doctors and staff held their 4th annual Quality Improvement Day this past spring. Donors to the Foundation have supported this program, which has encouraged the launch of dozens of initiatives to improve patient experiences, reduce hospital stays, lower infection rates, and decrease healthcare costs.

Drs. Jay Charania, Arun Garg and Preet Chahal represented Royal Columbian during a health and wellness forum organized by the South Asian Business Association in May. The three physicians provided health information to the audience, with a focus on cardiac and stroke care.

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On Twitter: @RoyalColumbian

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On Instagram: www.instagram.com/ royalcolumbian

GIFT IN PASSING How legacy giving can make an impact into the future

Charles Evans quietly left one of the largest-ever legacy gifts in Royal Columbian’s history.

Those who knew him say Charles Evans was frugal with himself but generous with others. He moved to New Westminster from Winnipeg after retiring from a career in law and lived in the same condo for three decades.

Before his death in 2017, Charles quietly designated Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation as the beneficiary of what is one of the largest legacy gifts ever in the hospital’s existence.

“He was a loner but very personable,” says his friend Dale Wren, who also became co-executor of his estate. “He was an only child and never married.”

Over a 15-year period, Charles made several donations to Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation, but nothing that would foreshadow the seven-figure gift he left in his Will. After he passed away, the Foundation was notified of a contribution totalling more than $3-million.

“He thought he would get the best bang for the buck by giving to the

hospital,” says Dale. “At least if he gave to the hospital it will go to help people.” Charles had received care at Royal Columbian after suffering a stroke in 2011.

“He was in a wheelchair after his stroke and never walked again,” says Dale. “His mind was fine though.”

Meaningful impact Gifts such as the one left by Charles demonstrate deep compassion for future patients, according to Catherine Cornish, who oversees legacy giving for Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation.

“Legacy gifts, large or small, are incredibly valuable,” she says. “We rely on them to support our work and the equipment, facility enhancements, research, education and innovation that make life-saving care at Royal Columbian Hospital possible.”

A gift in your Will (bequest) is the most common legacy gift. These gifts may involve cash gifts but could also include personal property like jewelry

or works of art, real estate, or publicly listed securities.

There are three types of bequests you can choose from, depending on what’s best for you: • A specific bequest is a gift of a particular piece of property or a stated sum of money. This value is fixed and will not change unless you revise your Will.

• A residual bequest is a gift of all or a fraction of whatever remains after all debts, taxes, administrative expenses, and specific bequests have been paid.

• A contingent bequest is a gift that takes effect only if the primary intention cannot be met (for example, if an intended beneficiary passes away first).

While Charles’s residual bequest was significant, Dale insists his friend never drew attention to himself and lived modestly. In passing however, his legacy will have a meaningful impact on the lives of many.

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REDEVELOPMENT FEATURE:

Preliminary concept drawing of a new Acute Care Tower.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2020.

Critical care for a third of BC An unprecedented $1.35 billion redevelopment puts Royal Columbian in the spotlight

Royal Columbian performs the most angioplasties in the country.

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Intervention is at the core of modern health care. Every day, interventional specialists at Royal Columbian Hospital step forward to turn the tide for their patients – often with minimallyinvasive procedures during heart and stroke emergencies.

Cardiac and stroke care are set for tremendous growth and advancement as Royal Columbian continues its massive hospital redevelopment.

After the opening of a new Mental Health and Substance Use Wellness Centre in 2020, construction will begin on a new

Acute Care Tower. Among its many features, the multi-storey tower is being designed to speed up access to interventional care for heart disease and stroke and increase our capacity to treat more patients.

When it opens in 2024, the tower will contain an “interventional super floor” that includes four suites exclusively for interventional cardiac procedures. Already, Royal Columbian serves as the region’s emergency room for the heart and performs the most angioplasties in the country.

The interventional super floor will also feature four suites for interventional radiology, able to treat strokes using minimally-invasive techniques available only at a very small number of hospitals. Royal Columbian plays an integral role in stroke care in our region, as the cornerstone of a 24/7 Acute Stroke Team.

Trauma care The hospital’s redevelopment will also transform patient care in a number of other departments. For instance, the new Acute Care Tower will house a state-of-the-art Emergency Department with 75 treatment bays – increasing total space by more than half.

As one of two Level 1 Trauma Centres for adults in BC, Royal Columbian is equipped, trained and certified to deal with large-scale catastrophes. It receives more Air Ambulance patients directly from accident scenes than any other hospital in the province.

In the new Acute Care Tower, the Emergency Department will include four trauma bays and a new ‘satellite’ Emergency Imaging Unit, strategically placed within the Emergency Department to drastically speed up access to diagnostic procedures.

Also, one operating room will be purpose-built and always available for trauma patients, to help avoid interrupting scheduled surgeries.

These additions and improvements will speed up admission, assessment and treatment. The hospital will have more space to accommodate all types of ER patients, and trauma patients can avoid being moved from one part of the hospital to another to get the scans they need.

region’s projected population growth, this number is expected to increase.

The Acute Care Tower will house a new 48-bed Maternity department, helping to care for 3,000 births each year. Most of the department’s rooms will be single-patient rooms to allow

Maternal and infant care For mothers and children, care will be highly integrated in the redeveloped hospital. Royal Columbian is a referral facility

Royal Columbian is one of two aDULT Level 1 trauma centres in the province.

for high-risk maternity. It is the only hospital in BC that has the capacity to treat both the mother and baby in certain critical care maternity cases.

On average, Royal Columbian delivers 3,000 babies annually – and with the

families the opportunity to bond in a private and dignified setting.

The NICU’s 24 beds will also be converted to single-patient rooms, allowing hundreds of parents each year to enjoy valuable bonding time with their newborns in a private setting.

These critical changes will allow our clinical teams to address the growing needs of families in the Fraser Health region.

In addition to providing support to women with high-risk pregnancies and newborns requiring critical care, Royal Columbian Hospital is a regional pediatric care centre.

The Pediatric department will grow by four additional beds for a total of 16, providing care to more than 1,000 infants, children and adolescents admitted annually.

Royal Columbian is a high-risk maternity centre with one of the province’s top neonatal intensive care units.

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REPORT TO DONORS:

YOUR GIFT IS CRITICAL TO THE CARE WE PROVIDE With the help of donors like you in 2018-19, Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation has been able to purchase equipment for a number of hospital departments, including the following:

Collective knowledge

Longtime donor Ed Les (right) helped to purchase the LOGIQ E10 ultrasound for Dr. Brad Halkier and others in the interventional radiology department.

Royal Columbian’s anatomic pathologists make more than 1,500 cancer diagnoses each year from tissue specimens and fluid samples.

A multi-headed microscope allows multiple pathologists to view each sample together, enabling them to pool their collective knowledge and experience. This results in considerably faster and more accurate cancer diagnosis, and it allows our pathologists to recommend an appropriate treatment protocol. Royal Columbian Hospital receives the largest anatomic pathology caseload in Fraser Health and the second largest in the Lower Mainland.

The EPIQ 7 ultrasound is used in the hospital’s Multipurpose Interventional Suite during heart ablation procedures to treat atrial fibrillation.

Next-generation imaging

Extraordinary images help our physicians identify and treat a variety of health concerns.

With the purchase of a LOGIQ E10 ultrasound, the hospital’s interventional radiology department is now getting top-quality visualization, allowing them to locate tumours that could not be seen with previous technology.

The department is among the first in the country to acquire this nextgeneration imaging system. The benefits include increased accuracy and safety. The ultrasound is used daily by the department during a range of procedures.

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Drive for the Cure Foundation helped purchase a multi-headed microscope for the hospital’s lab.

Heart rhythm repairs

Ablation is performed to correct atrial fibrillation, an irregular and often rapid heart rate that occurs when the two upper chambers of the heart experience chaotic electrical signals. During an ablation treatment, doctors thread long, thin catheters into the heart and apply heat or extreme cold. This causes tiny scars in certain parts of the heart muscle, which disrupt or eliminate the erratic electrical signals in the heart.

The EPIQ 7 ultrasound produces images of exceptional quality of the chambers of the heart. It enables our physicians to more safely and easily perform ablations to correct atrial fibrillation.

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Optimal warming

The Variety Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has added a specialized incubator that provides an optimal environment to help the neurodevelopment of newborns. This will be especially useful for babies who are born premature by 11 weeks or more.

The Babyleo IncuWarmer helps stabilize the baby’s temperature, provides noise and light monitoring, supports skin-to-skin care, and offers optimal infection prevention.

The NICU is consistently among the top in the country for achieving excellent survival rates.

The Babyleo IncuWarmer provides an optimal environment to help the neurodevelopment of newborns.

Swallowing safety

New equipment will help speechlanguage pathologists evaluate how well patients can swallow.

Patients with swallowing issues are more likely to develop pneumonia, poor nutrition, recovery delays and longer stays.

The donor-funded endoscopy equipment is brought to the bedside, and for complicated and critically ill patients, may be the only way to accurately assess and treat swallowing difficulties.

The bronchoscope system allows the intensive care team to look inside the lungs and perform lifesaving procedures.

Lung care This system is brought to the patient’s bedside to evaluate how well they can swallow.

The ability of the hospital’s intensive care team to perform lung therapeutics is critical.

A new bronchoscope system allows physicians to look inside the lungs and perform a range of procedures, from taking samples to determine what is causing a patient’s illness to removing objects that have been accidentally inhaled or suctioning out mucus to allow oxygen to get through the lungs.

The equipment is used as many as a dozen times a month and can be lifesaving for some of the most seriously ill patients.

Walking back to health

Getting a patient moving again as soon as possible is important for their recovery and preventing complications.

With donors’ assistance, physiotherapists and rehab assistants have access to a freestanding mobility system to help multi-trauma and critically ill patients get out of bed and start to walk again. As patients progress, therapists can monitor the amount of weightbearing they can do on their own, while the sling helps to support them while they work on their posture, strength and balance.

Stacey Rigby and Tina Moran from the physiotherapy department demonstrate the mobility system, used to help patients begin to walk again.

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Elijah John isn’t sure how he pulled himself out of the wreckage. The 18-year-old was in shock, he was struggling to breathe, and his left arm was dangling. All this after his car hydroplaned off the highway while en route to Hope on a rainy November evening.

“I remember trying to yell, and I couldn’t,” recalls Elijah. “I got up on the side of the road, and I was trying to wave traffic down.”

Fortunately, a passerby came over at a time when Elijah doubted he would survive much longer.

Elijah was rushed by ambulance to the hospital in Chilliwack and from there was helicoptered to Royal Columbian, one of the province’s two Level 1 adult trauma centres.

Systematic approach

TRAUMA ABCs Prioritizing a young man’s injuries following highway crash

Hope resident Elijah John suffered collapsed lungs and broken bones after his car hydroplaned off the highway in 2018.

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“There’s a good, systematic approach to trauma,” says Dr. John Taylor, who was the trauma team leader the night Elijah was brought to the hospital. “You just go systematically from A, B, C, D, E - Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability and Exposure.”

Elijah’s forearm was badly fractured.

He also suffered a fractured vertebra and broken ribs. But it was his collapsed lungs that initially most concerned the trauma team. They inserted chest tubes to improve his oxygen levels and stabilize him.

He later underwent surgery to repair his broken arm and was put in a neck brace to stabilize and support the fractured vertebra. Elijah spent two weeks in hospital before he could return home.

Trauma nurse practitioner Kathleen Fyvie credits Elijah’s family for being an active part of his recovery.

“Effective trauma care is a collaboration with the trauma care experts, the patient and their significant others. Elijah’s family were instrumental in supporting his psychosocial wellbeing and were open and proactive with their questions and concerns.

Three months later, Elijah has mostly recovered and calls the care he received at Royal Columbian “beyond good.”

“I felt comfortable and safe in the hands of each team and each employee that looked after me there,” he says.

Photo by Cornelia Naylor, Burnaby Now

Tom Levesque, Ken Carrusca, Jay Howell, and Wes Reamsbottom – teammates on “Can’t Skate Backwards” at Burnaby 8-Rinks

Skating through danger The importance of bystander CPR and AED during cardiac arrest Ken Carrusca has been playing hockey for decades and has racked up a number of injuries over the years. But when the 50-year-old collapsed on the ice in Burnaby in early 2018, it very quickly became a matter of life or death.

As he lay on the ice, unresponsive, Ken was fortunate that others came to his aid immediately. He had just suffered a cardiac arrest, one of an estimated 40,000 to occur outside of a hospital setting in Canada each year.

“Several people on the ice started CPR and used one of the AEDs (automated external defibrillator) to re-start my heart,” says Ken. That quick response helped keep Ken alive as he was transported to Royal Columbian Hospital. There, an angiogram detected blockages in his arteries and led to a quadruple bypass surgery.

“Bystander CPR is critical,” notes Dr. Gerald Simkus, an interventional

cardiologist at Royal Columbian Hospital who is also the medical director for cardiac sciences in the Fraser Health region. “Early defibrillation really boosts survival as well.”

Busiest in Canada Less than three weeks after Ken arrived in hospital, two other hockey players ended up at Royal Columbian following cardiac arrests – and they also survived.

49-year-old Rob MacDonald arrested at the end of a game in Pitt Meadows three days after Ken collapsed.

Two weeks later, 43-year-old Jamie Maclaren’s heart stopped following a game in Burnaby.

Both were fortunate to have quickthinking bystanders who performed CPR and defibrillation to help save their lives until they could be brought to hospital to receive emergency angioplasties.

In addition to performing the most

angioplasties in the country, Royal Columbian has among the best survival rates. The hospital’s remarkable results stand out while also having among the highest proportion of high-risk cases in the country.

“When you get to the hospital, your chances of leaving hospital alive after a cardiac arrest are quite good,” says Dr. Simkus.

Ten months after his cardiac arrest, Ken stepped back onto the ice to play again with his recreational hockey team.

“It was quite an emotional day when I went back to the rink to play my first game back with the teammates that saved my life,” he says. “While it’s fun to be back on the ice, most importantly I’m so appreciative that many of my mates had CPR and AED training and took such quick action. Without them, my skates would have been hung up for good.”

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Bringing basilica to cardiac care Royal Columbian becomes first in BC to perform new approach for failing heart valves Adriana Bronk was having such bad shortness of breath, she could no longer rest in her own bed. Instead, the 91-year-old woman had begun to sleep in a reclining chair. It turns out she was in need of a new heart valve.

Unfortunately, surgery was not an option for her. She also wouldn’t be suitable for a non-surgical procedure known as TAVI – that is, until Royal Columbian Hospital became only the second site in Canada to use a new approach that is providing an option for people who otherwise would have none left.

“That’s not a life for me,” Adriana recalls about her shortness of breath and dizzy spells, the result of a surgical valve that was Adriana Bronk is able to beginning to rest in her own bed again deteriorate a after becoming the second decade after openpatient at Royal Columbian heart surgery. “I to undergo a heart valve could do nothing. I replacement using a new approach known as BASILICA. couldn’t walk from here to the door. I was sore on my chest.”

A new surgery was ruled out because

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Dr. Daniel Wong

of her age and her health.

Patients like her are usually then considered for TAVI. The minimallyinvasive procedure is done at Royal Columbian and only two other hospitals in British Columbia.

However, TAVI was initially ruled out because the old surgical valve was sitting too close to Adriana’s coronary artery.

This made her at high risk of a rare but often fatal complication that would have caused her valve leaflets to block the flow of blood during the procedure.

Splitting the leaflet That’s when interventional cardiologist Dr. Albert Chan and cardiac surgeon Dr. Daniel Wong decided to consider BASILICA – a technique they had been learning

about over the last couple of years.

“An article came out in the spring of 2018,” explains Dr. Chan. “I contacted one of the coinventors of the procedure to see if I could visit and observe this. Then we decided let’s start doing it too.”

“We’re really happy we can offer this to our patients, because it is something quite potentially big for them,” says Dr. Wong, who travelled to Toronto to observe a case before

combined with the tools teaming up with Dr. Chan we use for TAVI and in the to perform BASILICA at cath lab. It’s bringing these Royal Columbian.

Patients who benefit from two specialties together and doing something that’s BASILICA are identified quite unique.” during a CT scan before Adriana was keen to they are scheduled for proceed and became the their valve replacement.

During BASILICA, the valve leaflet is split in the “We’re really happy middle before we can offer this a new valve is to our patients, implanted. This prevents the because it is something blood flow from quite potentially big being blocked for them.” during a TAVI procedure.

— Dr. DANIEL Wong “The idea is that by using a catheter approach, second patient to undergo tearing and lacerating the this new approach at Royal leaflet that potentially Columbian, which is the could occlude the blood first hospital in BC to use flow, you open up a gap BASILICA. Adriana spent to allow the blood to one night in hospital then continue to perfuse the returned home. coronary arteries after “100% better,” she says. the transcatheter valve “I couldn’t believe it. When implantation,” explains Dr. they said you can go home, Chan.

“It’s like doing surgery on my goodness! I can say it 100 times over. It’s so the inside,” says Dr. Wong, great, and I am so grateful.” “using the exact same tools we have for surgery,

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Emergency physician Dr. Ali Abdalvand is working on a prototype for a chest tube stabilizer with support from Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation’s AIM fund.

INVESTING IN IDEAS A unique approach to philanthropy is tapping into the hospital’s entrepreneurs

Dr. Ali Abdalvand collects ideas. The Royal Columbian Hospital emergency physician considers himself an amateur inventor, albeit one who has never really gone beyond putting his thoughts to paper. However, Dr. Abdalvand and others at the hospital are getting a unique chance to bring their innovative healthcare ideas to life, with help from a donor to Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation.

“I have always been someone with a knack for mechanical things,” says Dr. Abdalvand. “I do sketches of my ideas.

But the thought of building a product is too big for someone who is already busy. I couldn’t even think of going this far.”

Dr. Abdalvand has a prototype of one of his ideas since becoming involved in a process that was launched in early 2017. A donor to the Foundation who wishes to remain anonymous is investing in healthcare entrepreneurs, leading to the creation of the

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Advancing Innovation in Medicine (AIM) fund.

“I don’t know of anything like this anywhere else in the country,” says Foundation President and CEO Jeff Norris. “Rather than help buy medical equipment, this donor is enabling our talent to create new medical tools, products, and technologies.”

Out of 57 ideas during an initial application round, funding has been provided for four projects so far.

“More than half a million dollars has already been made available,” Jeff notes. “This is driving a culture of innovation at the hospital.”

Resources and mentorship Through AIM, Dr. Abdalvand is working on a device to improve the care of patients with collapsed lungs or fluid buildup in the chest cavity. His chest tube stabilizer would simplify the stabilization of chest tubes.

“To insert a chest tube, we have to make an incision in the chest wall,”

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Dr. Abdalvand explains. “So I thought about a system that actually closes that incision without sutures and holds the tube tight enough so it doesn’t move in or fall out. Probably more importantly, the system is adjustable in case you have to move the tube or pull it back.”

In addition to the financial resources, Dr. Abdalvand appreciates the mentorship he has received from AIM’s donor.

“He has the business experience that I don’t have,” says Dr. Abdalvand. “He has done this many, many times with commercial projects and companies. He has many connections in the industry.”

While Dr. Abdalvand tests the prototype of his chest tube stabilizer, AIM continues to search for more ideas.

“AIM has the potential to benefit healthcare globally,’ says Jeff. “One of its major goals is to improve patient care. Every new invention could help an untold number of people throughout the world.”

VIEW FROM THE TOP As President and CEO of Fraser Health since October 2018, Dr. Victoria Lee is responsible for its overall strategic direction and operations. Before joining the health authority in 2010 as medical health officer, Dr. Lee worked with national and international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.

Foundation: What kind of work did you do internationally?

VL: It was mostly in global health, which ranged from frontline clinical work in rural and indigenous communities in Central and South America to health policy and health economics work with global organizations.

Foundation: You’re considered a well-versed authority on the social determinants of health. What does that involve?

VL: What broadly determines your health outside of our health care system are things like your environment, personal behaviours such as what you eat, community context, and cultural and social connections.

While health services are a critical component of one’s health, so is housing, as well as access to healthy foods and physical activity.

Foundation: What are your current priorities at Fraser Health?

VL: First is to deliver on our vision and mandate, which is to provide high quality and sustainable care that is patient-centred. Second is to ensure we are expanding our primary community work. We need to integrate across the system of care, from community to acute to tertiary, all the services we have available so our patients experience a seamless health journey. The third area goes back to the social determinants.

Not only are we an important contributor in terms of health services, but also as an economic means in growth and development. Strong connections and partnerships will create value for our patients, families and communities. A fourth area I am looking at includes thinking about how we work together to build a culture based on trust and partnerships. The fifth area is innovation and technology, whether it’s artificial intelligence, more patient-centred technologies, improving accessibility, improving data. We need to seek new solutions to build modern and responsive health care.

Foundation: As Royal Columbian undergoes a massive redevelopment, what do you foresee for patient care?

VL: Right now there are a lot of physical limitations in what people can do day-to-day, and the infrastructure has aged quite a bit, so what I see with the redevelopment is being able to provide state-of-art facilities for the state-of-art people we have. I know people who work at RCH are really excited about bringing innovation and technology into the redevelopment to provide more proactive care and efficient and effective care for patients and families, so I am excited about that.

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Caring from hospital to home.

Getting a loved one home from the hospital isn’t just about arranging transportation. Choosing the right post-hospital care is essential for a full recovery. Our talent is caring, for you and the person you love.

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