Impact Report – Donors Like You Make Sunnybrook Special
Your Impact 2025
Your generosity sustains Sunnybrook’s vision to invent the future of health care. As you will read in these pages, donor support fuels life-changing programs, groundbreaking research and patient-centred initiatives. When urgent needs arise or the unexpected occurs, we are prepared – because of you.
Brighter days ahead for seniors care
The Cipriano Centre’s entrance canopy, which will support a comfortable transition into the space.
When Sunnybrook’s Peter Cipriano Centre for Seniors Health opens its doors later this year, seniors in our community will have access to coordinated, personalized care to help keep them independent and out of hospital – and Sunnybrook has donors like you to thank for making it possible.
The Peter Cipriano Centre for Seniors Health will feature innovative facilities organized around the needs of seniors and their families to provide comprehensive, compassionate care under one roof. Well-being is also a top priority, and there will be a therapeutic garden where seniors can enjoy nature’s healing properties. Our integrated facility will foster collaboration between family doctors, hospital staff and community care providers. This holistic approach to seniors’ health is increasingly urgent: the population of Ontario seniors is expected to double in the next 20 years.
With your support, we are improving quality of life for seniors in our community.
“Thank you for trusting us to direct your gifts to the areas of greatest need and highest impact. We are deeply grateful for your support.”
Kelly Cole President & CEO Sunnybrook Foundation
Your Impact By the Numbers
15,000
sq. ft. dedicated to coordinated care at the Peter Cipriano Centre for Seniors Health
3 stories
and 120,000 sq. ft. dedicated to the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre
30,000
flags planted in honour of our Veterans and to help raise funds for Sunnybrook Cenotaph renewal
9,481+
procedures at the Schulich Heart Program
Special Spaces
Donor support is helping Sunnybrook trailblaze health care with custom-built spaces for specialized research and care
New home for brain health
Dr. Nir Lipsman, Chief of Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, and neurologist Dr. Agessandro Abrahao are advancing potential treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Their revolutionary approaches will benefit from our new Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre, which opened to patients in early 2025 (pictured above left).
The first of its kind in Canada, the Hurvitz Centre unites Sunnybrook’s brain experts under one roof to increase collaboration and discovery and enhance the patient experience. More than 7,000 donors made the new Hurvitz Centre possible.
Among many projects, Drs. Lipsman and Abrahao are exploring the potential of focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier so they can deliver an enzyme that slows neurodegeneration and stops Parkinson’s disease in its tracks. The team is also leading a trial for a potential new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Expanding how we care for and honour Veterans
Donors have enabled the revitalization of Sunnybrook’s Veterans Centre and restoration of our Cenotaph.
Key spaces in the Veterans Centre were refreshed and updated alongside construction of the Peter Cipriano Centre for Seniors Health. This included the library branch, games room, reception, and speech-language pathology. Enhancements are improving the quality of life of our Veteran residents.
Sunnybrook’s restored Cenotaph, meanwhile, provides a welcoming outdoor space for remembrance and quiet reflection (pictured above right).
Standing as a tribute to Canadians who served in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and ongoing conflicts, the Cenotaph was rededicated on June 6, 2024, the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
See how Sunnybrook treated Andy’s “incurable” essential tremours with a non-invasive, image-guided focused ultrasound procedure.
How Focused Ultrasound Transformed Andy Hodgson’s Life
Sunnybrook’s experts are also using focused ultrasound, an image-guided surgical technology that uses ultrasound energy to target specific areas of the brain, to change the lives of people like Andy Hodgson.
Philanthropy ensures that Sunnybrook’s teams have access to the latest tools and technologies.
Personalized radiation treatment for more people A groundbreaking new radiation treatment planning system has arrived at Sunnybrook, thanks to donors.
When paired with 10 of Sunnybrook’s 13 linear accelerators, the new system—called RayStation—will allow radiation oncologists to customize and adapt treatments without the need for daily MRIs to track patient progress.
The hardware and software are installed and now being tested. Team Sunnybrook is developing workflows and training modules to support this new standard of care. The first patient has received treatment using RayStation in Spring 2025.
Digital Pathology, Digital Pathology Launch Celebration, Imaging, Laboratory Medicine, Pathology, Technology
Philanthropy is Supporting Digital Pathology at Sunnybrook
Sunnybrook is transitioning to fully digital pathology, thanks in part to philanthropy.
Moving from traditional glass slides to digital pathology is elevating the efficiency and precision of our diagnostics, as well as opening the door to more personalized and precise treatments.
Tiny heart device, big impact Sunnybrook donors are funding the world’s smallest heart pump, which is changing the lives of patients who cannot withstand open-heart surgery.
The Impella heart pump can be temporarily inserted during minimally invasive procedures. It sustains blood pressure and allows the heart to rest, which is crucial for patients with certain blockages or a weak heart muscle.
The Impella has been shown to reduce the risk of death in the most severe category of heart attacks. But the procedure is not fully funded by the government. “Without donor generosity for innovative devices like the Impella, certain patients may not be able to safely undergo high-risk procedures,” says Dr. Brian Courtney, an interventional cardiologist, engineer and scientist at Sunnybrook.
Special Teams
People and teams are Sunnybrook’s most important strategic advantage. Gifts help support recruitment, talent development and skills that deliver impact beyond the walls of Sunnybrook and into the community.
From left, Cari Wyne, Dr. Markku Nousiainen, Portia Kalun and Normand Robert photographed at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. (Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/Sunnybrook)
This black box shines a light Much like airlines analyze black box data for insights, Sunnybrook’s Holland Bone and Joint Program is using recordings of surgical procedures to strengthen performance and train future experts.
Philanthropy helped fund the purchase and installation of small cameras in the Holland Centre operating room and in surgical lights. Protected by privacy-safe software, the cameras can record audio, video, patient vitals and X-ray imaging, which is later used for teaching.
With the data collected, the team will soon develop tools to assess team performance and its relationship to patient outcomes. A twin system has also been installed in a non-clinical simulation operating room for training purposes.
Pictured above in the simulation operating room are the Holland Bone and Joint Program’s Drs. Cari Whyne, Markku Nousiainen, Portia Kalun and Normand Robert.
TRC Intake Coordinator Olukayode (Kay) Juwape photographed at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. (Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/Sunnybrook)
Philanthropy is Supporting Digital Pathology at Sunnybrook
Thanks to donor support, the high-performing team in the Jennifer Tory Trauma Recovery Clinic is serving as an essential bridge between acute care and specialized services to enhance recovery after trauma. Pictured is Dr. Kay Juwape, whose role as patient care navigator is to match patients with services that could improve their recovery, such as post-concussion care, occupational therapy or the Complex Spinal Cord Injury Clinic.
