Anxiety. Uncertainty. Isolation. Sickness.
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on lives and healthcare systems around the world. As the virus continues to spread, we have a very small window in time to uncover new knowledge that will protect frontline healthcare workers and save lives.
Something must be done now. So Canada’s number-one research hospital is taking swift action.
UHN researchers reassigned
Most of UHN’s researchers have switched their focus to finding rapid solutions for COVID-19, from faster assessment to treatments that will prevent and minimize spread.
Experts from a range of disciplines – infectious disease, respirologists, clinical trials experts and many other resources across UHN – are playing an active role.
UHN will lead a focused co-ordination and acceleration of COVID-19 studies across Toronto and the GTA, with seamless sharing of data and findings with hospital partners across the city. This will make UHN the place where advancements and discoveries can be made quickly – and have direct impact immediately, in our communities and beyond.
“The volume and nature of the patients we see at UHN, in conjunction with our international research collaborations, will drive new knowledge in prevention, vaccines, therapies and cures,” says Dr. Bradly Wouters, UHN’s Executive VP of Science and Research. “It will make UHN a North American hub for international infectious disease research.”
What will the research do?
- Launch new clinical trials with anti-viral therapies to protect our critical healthcare workforce at the front lines of the disease, and meet the demands placed on our healthcare system.
- Develop a rapid diagnostic test that hospital emergency departments can use to measure lung sickness and risk of death from COVID-19 infection.
- Launch a multi-hospital scalable research platform to provide tests for healthcare workers and identify COVID-19 at early stages to prevent spread.
- Launch a UHN-wide clinical research trial to enable rapid activation and testing of new experimental therapies, including multinational co-ordinated efforts for COVID-19 patients requiring life-saving treatment.
- Identify mechanisms that are responsible for individual risk of developing severe disease and discover novel therapies to treat COVID-19.
- Enter every patient at UHN into a clinical research study to capture and analyze data in real time to guide clinical decision-making at UHN and elsewhere. Enable biobanking of patient material to support novel research.
- For more information, please visit UHN’s COVID-19 research site.
UHN has the potential to change the trajectory of COVID-19. But we can’t do it alone.
We’ll beat this together
Government funding has already kick-started these research projects, but donor support will help us sustain our work and accelerate the pace of what is possible.
We’ve established an emergency COVID-19 fund to support the most urgent needs of Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals during this pandemic.
The world needs us. Help us put an end to COVID-19.