Trustees from the William James Henderson Foundation pledged $1 million over four years to the University Hospital Kingston Foundation (UHKF), their largest gift to date, to help build the Centre for Patient-Oriented Research at Kingston General Hospital (KGH). In recognition of this generous gift, the new research facility will be named the “W. J. Henderson Centre for Patient-Oriented Research.”
The W. J. Henderson Foundation supports health care facilities, museums and other charitable activities. Since 1992 the W. J. Henderson Foundation has donated over $1.9 million to Kingston’s hospitals to various programs including: Cardiology, Urology Research, Orthopedics Research, the Human Mobility Research Centre and Diagnostic Imaging. The Henderson Foundation has also generously supported research and teaching at the Queen’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
Representatives from the two foundations and KGH celebrated the pledge and the naming recognition at an event held today on Connell 4, where the facilities will be built. This new facility will push KGH and the southeastern Ontario community into new spheres of provincial, national and international research recognition. And as KGH takes its place among the top research hospitals, members of our community will be the immediate beneficiaries of the patient-oriented research conducted within which will work to improve disease prevention outcomes, diagnosis and treatment. Community members will also have the opportunity to take part in experimental trials that will allow for game-changing discoveries in health. The centre will increase clinical research space by 25 per cent and will be large enough to support the hospital’s research program for the next five to 10 years.
”The W. J. Henderson Foundation is a recognized champion of our region’s economy, health and overall vitality,” said Denise Cumming, Executive Director, UHKF. “We are privileged to include the Foundation among our loyal supporters, and their support will help to create a better, healthier community for generations to come.”
Leslee Thompson, President & CEO of KGH echoes that sentiment. “This significant gift will support the creation of state-of-the-art research facilities to assist our clinician-scientists within the Centre for Patient-Oriented Research at Kingston General Hospital in leading research and health innovation advancements that will ultimately benefit patients and their families in our region and beyond.”
“The Centre for Patient-Oriented Research at KGH will provide a much-needed, custom-designed environment that will bring researchers and patients together in a multidisciplinary setting,” says Dr. Roger Deeley, Vice-President, Health Sciences Research at KGH. “It will enable the development of new treatments and treatment guidelines, new diagnostic tests and procedures, which will ultimately result in improved patient care, within Kingston and beyond.”
“The Centre will provide much needed, 24-hour support for medical research in multiple areas of patient care,” said W. J. Henderson Foundation Board member David Pattenden. “Everyone in the community stands to benefit from the discoveries made in the new centre.”
To date, $1.2 million has been raised towards the goal of $2.8 million.
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