Women's College Hospital is a teaching
hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. It is located at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of
University Avenue
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions as an independent
ambulatory care
Ambulatory care or outpatient care is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technology and procedu ...
hospital. The Chief of Staff is Dr. Sheila Laredo and the physician-in-chief is Dr. Paula Harvey.
Women's College Hospital maintains a focus on
women's health
Women's health differs from that of men in many unique ways. Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not mer ...
,
research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
in women's health, and
ambulatory care
Ambulatory care or outpatient care is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technology and procedu ...
. It was recognized as the only ''collaborating centre'' in women's health the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
designated by the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
.
Women's College Hospital is associated with Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital Foundation and Women's Health Matters, a
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
consumer website on women's health and lifestyle issues.
History
Women's College Hospital began as Woman's Medical College in 1883. On June 13, 1883, Dr.
Emily Stowe
Emily Howard Stowe (née Jennings, May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903) was a Canadian physician who was the first female physician to practise in Canada, the second licensed female physician in Canada and an activist for women's rights and suff ...
(1831–1903)
the second woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada – led a group of her supporters to a meeting at the Toronto Women's Suffrage Club, stating "that medical education for women is a recognized necessity, and consequently facilities for such instruction should be provided." The motion was seconded adding "that the establishment of such a school was a public necessity and in the interests of the community."
Less than six months after this meeting, on October 1, 1883, Toronto Mayor A.R. Boswell formally opened Woman's Medical College.
Women's College Hospital leaders
*Dr.
Jessie Gray – considered at the time to be one of the top cancer surgeons in North America, she was the first woman to earn a Master of Surgery degree in Canada
*Dr. Marion Powell – a leader in raising consciousness in women's sexual health
*Dr. Henrietta Banting – spearheaded the use of mammography
*Dr. Marion Hilliard – collaborated in the development of a simplified Pap test
*Dr.
Ricky Kanee Schachter – was the first woman to lead an academic division of dermatology
*Dr.
Minerva Reid
Minerva Ellen Reid (20 Oct 1871 – 28 April 1957) was a teacher, medical doctor, and politician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1915, Reid became the chief of surgery at Toronto's Women's College Hospital, making her the first woman to hold s ...
– was the first female Chief of Surgery in North America
Ontario Medical College for Women
In 1895, the College amalgamated with its sister institution in
Kingston, Ontario, and changed its name to the Ontario Medical College for Women. A practical experience clinic called the Dispensary was opened in Toronto in 1898. The clinic allowed female patients to obtain the services of women doctors in a field dominated by men. At the time, services were provided regardless of the patient's ability to pay and medical advice was always free.
In 1906, the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
opened its doors to permit women to study
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, and the Ontario Medical College for Women closed. The Dispensary remained open and continued to prosper in the city.
Recent history
Women's College Hospital moved to its current location in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
in 1935, and became a teaching hospital affiliated with the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
in 1961. Later, the hospital merged with
Sunnybrook Hospital and the Orthopedic and Arthritic Hospital in 1998 under the provisions of Ontario Bill 51, becoming Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. In 2006, they de-amalgamated and Women's College Hospital reverted to its original name. During the SARS outbreak of 2003, while still part of the erstwhile "Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre", the Women's College site housed the first ambulatory
SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sever ...
clinic in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. Meanwhile, the Sunnybrook site housed both the first in-patient SARS unit and Intensive Care Unit for SARS in Canada.
The hospital was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment
An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...
in 1995. A plaque was erected by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at the Women's College Hospital, Grenville St., Toronto.
About
Women's College Hospital collaborated in the invention of the simplified
Pap test
The Papanicolaou test (abbreviated as Pap test, also known as Pap smear (AE), cervical smear (BE), cervical screening (BE), or smear test (BE)) is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in t ...
, opened Ontario's first regional
Sexual Assault Care Centre and was the first hospital in the province to use
mammography
Mammography (also called mastography) is the process of using low-energy X-rays (usually around 30 kVp) to examine the human breast for diagnosis and screening. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through d ...
as a diagnostic tool to detect breast cancer. As of 2012, it is Ontario's first and only independent
ambulatory care
Ambulatory care or outpatient care is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technology and procedu ...
centre. Ambulatory care refers to surgeries, diagnostic procedures and treatments that do not require overnight hospitalization. That means patients can be released within 18 hours, and can recover at home.
Complex
WCH consists of three wings built in 1935, 1956 and 1971 with the later two completed demolition and the former to be demolition as part of the rebuild which was completed in 2015.
The 1935 wing was a 10-storey
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
building that was torn down despite historical designation for WCH.
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]
Education
Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. Research at the hospital, university and research institute are focused around sex and gender differences in physiology and social roles, which cause women to have different health-care needs than men.
WCH received a $500,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; french: Agence de la santé publique du Canada, ASPC) is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic dis ...
's Immunization Partnership Fund to implement a vaccine
A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...
education program targeted towards non-physician health care workers in long-term facilities and at-home care services.
Research
The Women's College Research Institute (WCRI) is the only one of its kind at a Canadian hospital devoted to women's health. International researchers study breast cancer, musculoskeletal health, older women's health and the impact of violence on women's lives.
WCRI scientist Dr. Steven Narod was part of the team that discovered the BRCA1
Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BRCA1'' () gene. Orthologs are common in other vertebrate species, whereas invertebrate genomes may encode a more distantly related gene. ''BRCA1'' is a h ...
and BRCA2
''BRCA2'' and BRCA2 () are a human gene and its protein product, respectively. The official symbol (BRCA2, italic for the gene, nonitalic for the protein) and the official name (originally breast cancer 2; currently BRCA2, DNA repair associated) ...
genes as breast cancer risks– one of the most important breakthroughs in cancer research
Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.
Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...
. He has changed the way international health professionals understand and test for genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer.
Treatment/clinics
*After Cancer Treatment Transition Clinic: Women's College Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital created Canada's only After Cancer Treatment Transition Clinic (ACTT) to address the health-care needs of cancer survivors.
*Virtual Ward: With funding from the Toronto Central Local Health Institution and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, several hospitals have partnered with the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre to create the first virtual ward in North America. The Virtual Ward uses a health team to work with patients who cannot come to the hospital on a regular basis.
*CACE Complex Care Clinic: In collaboration with the University of Toronto, Women's College Hospital built a Centre for Ambulatory Care and Education (CACE) Complex Care Clinic. The clinic opened in 2015 and will focus on providing ambulatory care
Ambulatory care or outpatient care is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technology and procedu ...
. It will use an interdisciplinary approach to medicine.
*Bay Centre for Birth Control: The Bay Centre specializes in sexual and reproductive health care for women in Ontario. Services include contraceptive health care, reproductive health care, abortion care, sexual health care, and colonoscopy services. It is located near the main hospital at 790 Bay Street, Toronto.
Women's College Hospital timeline
See also
*Elizabeth Bagshaw
Elizabeth Catherine Bagshaw (October 19, 1881 – January 5, 1982) was one of Canada's first woman physicians. She was the medical director of the first birth control clinic in Canada, located in Hamilton, Ontario.
Early life
Bagshaw was ...
* Margaret McKellar
* Helen Bell Milburn
* Hannah Emily Reid
* Ricky Kanee Schachter
*Emily Stowe
Emily Howard Stowe (née Jennings, May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903) was a Canadian physician who was the first female physician to practise in Canada, the second licensed female physician in Canada and an activist for women's rights and suff ...
* Marjorie Davis
References
External links
Women's College Hospital
Women's Health Matters
{{authority control
Hospitals in Toronto
Hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto
Hospitals established in 1883
National Historic Sites in Ontario
Public–private partnership projects in Canada
Women in Toronto