Southlake Regional Health Centre and York University are partnering to strengthen their ties in addressing pressing issues in health care.
The memorandum of understanding signed on Monday, Dec. 11 enables the Newmarket hospital and university to explore mutual areas of interest and set goals to open conversations and further health knowledge, practice, policy and care.
Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor of York University, said that collaboration between universities and health-care organizations is more critical than ever to feed the talent pipeline.
“This will leverage York’s long-standing reputation as a leader in health-care education, while advancing our shared goals of increasing the quality and accessibility of care in York Region and Simcoe County,” she said.
The agreement spans the full spectrum of care from infant, child, and adolescent health to healthy aging and seniors care, said Arden Krystal, president and CEO of Southlake.
“This partnership will allow us to enrich care for the patients we serve, support professional development and enhance collaboration with the mutual goal of improving care delivery,” she said.
Krystal said this will usher in better care for generations by leveraging expertise in cancer research, neuroscience, and disease modelling while also providing Southlake employees with learning opportunities at York.
“York and Southlake will be able to partner in improving health informatics and analytics, as well as health technology to develop digital health solutions, machine learning, and other diagnostic imaging collaborations,” she said.
Lenton said that York and Southlake share many goals from improving quality and accessibility of health care to sparking technological innovation.
“This will build on the success of all the past collaborations between York and Southlake and foster equitable and innovative health-care solutions,” she said.
An example of this already, Lenton said, is York’s director of the muscle health research centre and his team are currently collaborating with Southlake doctors to investigate heart dysfunction causes with the goal of developing innovative treatments to accelerate post-surgery recovery and improve the well-being of diverse populations,
“This type of partnership between organizations is truly the future of health care,” said Krystal. “By working together, sharing resources, and combining our talents to enhance opportunities for patients, Southlake will fulfil our purpose.”
