Caring for Everybody - A Celebration of Health Research Partnerships between Canada’s Academic Healthcare Organizations and Health Charities

For Immediate Release

Caring for Everybody – A Celebration of Health Research Partnerships between Canada’s Academic Healthcare Organizations and Health Charities.

The members of the Health Charities Coalition of Canada (HCCC) and the Association of Academic Healthcare Organizations (ACAHO) are national health organizations with a well-kept secret – the power of their partnerships when it comes to success in health research and innovation, and improving the health of Canadians and their overall quality of life.

In a first of its kind report, the health charities identified success stories from research funded by their organizations to researchers in Canada’s academic healthcare organizations. While this accounts for a very limited snapshot of the breadth of ongoing research, it allows us to discuss examples of health research that are making an impact today and for the future. More details on these stories are available on a dedicated webpage on each of the ACAHO and HCCC websites.

“The goal of Caring for Everybody – Celebrating Successful Health Research Partnerships is to celebrate some of the ways in which Canada's health charities and academic healthcare organizations have partnered for success in health research and innovation”, says Mr. Glenn Brimacombe, President & CEO of ACAHO.

“By celebrating these successes, we raise awareness of world-class research and innovation in Canada. We also provide accountability to the public, policy makers, funders and donors who may not be aware of the roles of national health charities or academic healthcare organizations”, adds Deirdre Freiheit, Executive Director of the Health Charities Coalition of Canada. 

Whether you are a patient or family member; a donor to a health charity or academic healthcare organization’s foundation; a researcher, policy maker or funder; health professional or member of the public, we are delighted to invite you to share in this short celebration. We hope it will inform and inspire you to continue your support for health research and innovation at academic healthcare organizations and health charities in Canada.

For more information contact:
Beatrice Keleher Raffoul
Vice President, Public Affairs
Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations
raffoul@acaho.org
613-730-5818 x 323

 ABOUT ACAHO AND HCCC

The Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations (ACAHO) is the national voice of Teaching Hospitals, academic Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) and their Research Institutes. The Association represents more than 45 organizations, with members ranging from single hospitals to multi-site, multi-dimensional regional facilities (also known as "Research Hospitals").

Members of ACAHO are leaders of innovative and transformational organizations which have an overall responsibility for the following integrated activities:

• Timely access to a range of high-quality specialized and some primary health care services.

• Provision of all of the principal clinical teaching sites for Canada's health care professionals including partnerships with all 17 Faculties of Medicine and Faculties of Health Sciences.

• Infrastructure to support and conduct health research in its dimensions - medical discovery, knowledge creation, knowledge translation, and innovation and commercialization.

There are no other organizations in the health system that provide the unique combination of health services that our members do. We consider our institutions to be vital "hubs" in the health system - in addition to being a national resource.

Health Charities Coalition of Canada

HCCC, a member based organization, is dedicated to advocating for sound public policy on health issues and promoting the highest quality health research.  HCCC strives for excellence in health policy and seeks to ensure that the federal government and policy makers look to the Coalition and its members for timely advice and leadership on major health issues of concern to Canadians; and that they recognize the competence, commitment and contributions of health charities in improving the health and well-being of Canadians. HCCC was established in 2000.

National health charities play a number of key roles in the health system, including:

• Co-funding with the government on some of the most important leading health research in the world.  Members of the HCCC alone fund in excess of $200 million annually for health research and research training;
• Providing leadership in lifestyle change for prevention,  early detection, management and quality of life;
• Being part of the vast network of services in the Canadian health system that develop and offer programs to support patients, families and caregivers;
• Translating knowledge gained through research to affect better public policy and better health outcomes for Canadians.