News Releases - 2002

February 14, 2002

West Park Healthcare Centre Foundation Launches $26 million Fundraising Campaign: Funding for new Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research Announced

TORONTO -Tony Viner, president and CEO of Rogers Media Inc., has launched West Park Healthcare Centre Foundation's $26 million Raising the Bar Campaign for the regional rehabilitation centre with a valentine for all those living with lung disease.

Thanks to a $1 million lead gift to the campaign from the centre's founding body, West Park will soon be home to the National Sanitarium Association Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research. The Chair is a fully endowed academic appointment, to be held at West Park in affiliation with the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, and will expand the knowledge base in chronic obstructive lung disease and respiratory rehabilitation, develop innovative new treatments and improve the quality of care at West Park and in other health care facilities around the world.

It was thanks to an equally significant investment just over 20 years ago from the National Sanitarium Association (NSA) that West Park Healthcare Centre has been able to establish an outstanding academic program in respirology, acknowledged nationally and internationally for its innovation and rigor. In recognition of the NSA's past contributions to, and long history with, West Park, the West Park Healthcare Centre Foundation will invest the other $1 million necessary to establish the Chair in affiliation with the University of Toronto.

"West Park's research is practical and practice-oriented: the goal is to discover new and better ways to care for patients with lung disease, to help them live richer lives, and if possible, to return them to the community," said Mr. Viner. "With this gift the program is now poised to move to the next level, positioning itself to make even greater contributions to our understanding and treatment of breathing difficulties."

The National Sanitarium Association Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research will join other Chairs created over the past five years at the University of Toronto. It will be an investment in established excellence, producing a return in the form of increased external research funding, additional innovative knowledge, more highly trained clinicians and researchers, and ultimately, a better quality of life for people with breathing difficulties.

According to Dr. Eliot Phillipson, Chair of the University of Toronto's Department of Medicine, in the Faculty of Medicine, the respiratory rehabilitation program at West Park, established over 20 years ago, is pre-eminent in its field.

"Indeed, the name West Park is well recognized in the international respiratory community as a world leader in research, innovation, and patient care. It is therefore appropriate and in keeping with the high standards of the university that an Endowed Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research be established at West Park."

"The NSA gift is a wonderful start to a major campaign that the Boards of Directors and I believe will strengthen and expand West Park's services and help prepare it to meet the growing -- and extensive --demands of the future, " said Barry Monaghan, president and CEO of West Park.

The foundation's Raising the Bar Campaign will help West Park renovate in-patient areas and expand in-patient Acquired Brain Injury Behaviour, and Sleep Laboratory services, support research in respiratory and other rehabilitation fields, advance new patient care technology and help the centre to launch a model 200-bed long-term care centre. The total cost of this redevelopment is $26 million, of which $10 million must be raised privately.

"We all know from reading our daily papers and listening to the media that government funding does not cover all of the costs of health care," said Mr. Monaghan. "Despite the expertise of our physicians, staff and volunteers - who have already contributed physically and financially to this campaign - we can't raise the bar on health care standards alone. We need community help. The Greater Toronto Area is not just a stakeholder in West Park, it's a shareholder. The time has come to re-invest. The return on investment is that we'll be here when you need us. "

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For more information, please contact:

Sandra Fawcett, Director, Public Relations
Phone: (416) 243-3730
Email: sandra.fawcett@westpark.org