Newsroom

The Ottawa Hospital opens the Ottawa Blood Disease Centre


May 31, 2012

Ottawa – Today, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) celebrates the opening of the Ottawa Blood Disease Centre, a world-class facility for a world-class team to improve patient care in blood disease in Ottawa.

The opening of the Ottawa Blood Disease Centre represents a huge milestone in improving care for the more than thirty thousand Ottawa-area patients who suffer from blood disorders and blood cancers, or who require blood or bone marrow transplants.

“The Ottawa Blood Disease Centre brings the best and brightest health-care professionals and researchers together under one roof,” said Dr. Marc Rodger, Chief of Hematology, The Ottawa Hospital, Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor of Medicine, University of Ottawa “This will improve patient care, accelerate life-saving research and help us train tomorrow’s leaders in blood disease.”

The Ottawa Blood Disease Centre is based at the new Centre for Practice-Changing Research at The Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus. Prior to the opening of the centre, the blood disease team was scattered in nine locations across six buildings on two campuses.

The Ottawa Hospital, in partnership with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, is already a leader in world-class care, research and training in blood diseases. For example, members of the Ottawa Blood Disease Centre have:
  • Developed a procedure for diagnosing vein blood clots that is used around the world (called the Wells Rule, after Dr. Phil Wells) and a procedure to decide who should stay on blood thinners indefinitely after an unprovoked vein blood clot (called the “Men continue and HERDOO2 rule”).
  • Implemented an innovative outpatient bone marrow transplant program that has allowed thousands of patients to be treated more conveniently without an overnight stay, while freeing up inpatient beds for others.
  • Led a ground-breaking clinical trial of a bone marrow stem cell transplantation therapy for multiple sclerosis, with promising results that have attracted attention around the world.
  • Implemented a comprehensive program for managing blood-thinning medications in people who have a high risk of developing blood clots. Because of this program, patients at TOH have the optimal blood thickness 80 per cent of the time, compared to 50 to 60 per cent in many other centres.


Media contact:
Hazel Harding
Communications Advisor
Email: hharding@toh.on.ca
Tel.: 613-737-8460