Women’s College Hospital is well established as a leader in women’s health – our remarkable history goes back more than a century in Ontario. We have gone through many changes in the past several years – the most recent being regaining our independent governance on April 1, 2006. This is a very exciting time for us, as we explore new and better ways to provide care to women and their families throughout every phase of their lives.

The New Women’s College Hospital is a community dedicated to achieving leadership in women’s health in an ambulatory care setting.

We are the first and only independent ambulatory care hospital in Ontario, and the only hospital in Ontario with a primary focus on women’s health. As a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, we support research in women’s health and will lead the way in training health-care providers within an ambulatory setting.

The Women’s College Research Institute (WCRI) works with all of the researchers based at Women’s College Hospital to conduct research that improves women’s lives. WCRI includes a diverse, intersisciplinary faculty active in eight established research programs and in a number of  clinical research initiatives across the hospital. Visit the WCRI web site at www.womensresearch.ca.

Women’s College Research Institute (WCRI) is leading the way towards a new, more comprehensive understanding of women’s health. Our investigators explore women’s health concerns from cell to society. They work across disciplines to generate relevant and holistic solutions. WCRI is dedicated to integrating research into clinical practice at Women’s College Hospital to produce outstanding clinical services for women and their families.

WCRI strives to:

• Create new research knowledge by supporting research programs in key women’s health areas and by working with clinicians to develop and evaluate innovative services.
• Facilitate advances in women’s health by connecting researchers, students and clinicians across research disciplines.
• Share research knowledge with clinicians, policy makers and the public to insure that research knowledge improves women’s lives.

WCRI is comprised of eight established research programs. It also encompasses and supports a number of clinical research initiatives within Women’s College Hospital.

• Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit
• Maternal Infant and Reproductive Health Research Unit
• Canadian Osteoarthritis Research Program
• Obstetrical Anesthesia Research Unit
• Ontario Breast Cancer Community Research Initiatives
• Osteoporosis Research Program
• Violence and Health Program
• Women and HIV Program

Women’s College Research Institute makes clinical researchers part of its Faculty and will be a testing ground for ambulatory care services that can help people maintain their health and live independently. We will strive to ensure that all of our care programs are based on research evidence – and that this evidence is clear and compelling enough to justify improving health services for women and their families at other institutions.

Enhancing the capacity of our clinical research programs to evaluate the quality of clinical care models is one important element of our current strategic planning process. Here are some examples of clinical reseach initiatives now active at Women’s College Hospital.

• The Bay Centre for Birth Control
• The Family Practice Health Centre
• The Gender, Asthma and COPD Program
• The Henrietta Banting Breast Cancer Centre
• The Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative
• Women’s Mental Health Clinical Programs