Toronto General Hospital is the main teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada, and one of the five major hospitals of the Canadian University Health Network. Toronto General Hospital is the largest organ transplantation center in Canada and even North America, which can transplant heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, small intestine and other organs for patients. Toronto General Hospital is world-famous for Peter Monk Heart Center, which is considered as the "global leader" in open heart surgery and cardiovascular health. In addition, the Toronto Institute is also the research institution with the most sufficient research funds in Canada, and has been rated as the first medical research institution in Canada by the well-known consulting company Research Infosource for nine consecutive years. The Toronto General Hospital, which is known as "the best hospital in Canada", deserves its name.
1、 Born in wartime and growing rapidly
Toronto General Hospital is located in the downtown of Toronto, adjacent to the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital in the south, facing Margaret Hospital and Sinai Mountain Hospital across the University Street in the west, close to the Ontario Parliament Building, and also adjacent to the Parliament Building Station of the Toronto Metro. Founded in 1812, Toronto General Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in Canada. Toronto General Hospital was formerly a military hospital established in York by the Loyal and Patriotic Society during the US Canada War. After the war, the Loyal Patriotic Association established a civilian hospital, York General Hospital, on the basis of the military hospital, with the funds from the smelting of the medals originally planned to be awarded to soldiers participating in the war. Later, it was renamed Toronto General Hospital. Today, Toronto General Hospital has grown into a large hospital with many internal and surgical specialists. The emergency department alone receives more than 30000 patients every year. In 2020, Toronto General Hospital was rated as one of the top ten hospitals in the world by Newsweek.
2、 The largest organ transplantation center in North America
According to the data of the American Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the Canadian University Health Network as of March 1, 2018, the Multi Organ Transplantation Program of Toronto General Hospital ranked first in number and was the largest organ transplantation center in North America. In 2017, 639 transplant operations were performed. Moreover, the number of operations in all organ groups in Toronto General Hospital has increased, especially for lung, liver and kidney transplantation. The lung transplantation plan of Toronto General Hospital is the largest transplantation plan in the world. 167 lung transplants were carried out in 2017, about 1/3 of which was attributed to the Toronto Ex Vivo lung perfusion technology, which was initiated by Toronto General Hospital in 2008.
This isolated lung perfusion technique can repair the damaged donor lung in vitro and make it suitable for transplantation. In just five years, Toronto Ex Vivo lung perfusion technology has increased the number of lung transplants performed in Ontario by 70%. Now this technology is being extended to other organs. Dr. Atul Humar, Medical Director of the Multi organ Transplantation Program of Toronto General Hospital, said: "This work opens the door to various therapies, which can potentially be used to repair various injuries of other donor organs, thus improving the safety and results of transplantation." Toronto General Hospital is the world's first in vitro organ repair center. Advanced molecular and cellular repair technologies can be used to further improve the effect of organ transplantation. Relevant data shows that 195 liver transplants were performed in Toronto General Hospital in 2017, 39 of which were live donor liver transplants, making it the largest hospital for liver transplantation in North America; 202 kidney transplants were carried out in the kidney program, 64 of which were live donor kidney transplants, making it the largest kidney transplantation hospital in Canada; In addition, 21 pancreas transplants, 34 heart transplants and 1 small intestine transplants were performed in the multi organ transplantation program. A total of 639 adult transplants were performed.
3、 Global leader in open heart surgery
Toronto General Hospital is also world-famous for the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. The heart center is named after Peter Munk, founder of Barrick Gold, who donated $100 million to Toronto General Hospital in 2017, which is the largest donation received by the Canadian History Hospital. Since 1993, Peter Monk has donated 175 million dollars to Toronto General Hospital. At present, Peter Monk Heart Center receives 55000 outpatients, 2680 cardiac operations and 7000 cardiac catheterization operations every year. It is considered as the "global leader" of open heart surgery and cardiovascular health.
Peter Monk Heart Center has achieved many world firsts in cardiovascular treatment. As early as 1935, heparin was first used to treat patients; In 1950, the concept of external pacemaker was put forward; The first hypothermic heart surgery was performed in 1953; In 1976, real-time ultrasound was used for the first time to assess the severity of narrowing of blood vessels... In order to "suit the right medicine" for different heart diseases, the Peter Munk Cardiac Center set up seven sub centers of excellence: the Peter Munk Aortic Disease Center of Excellence; Thomas Toby Hull Heart Rhythmic Disease Research Center; Peter Monk International Center of Excellence in Clinical Trials; Peter Monk Center of Excellence in Molecular Medicine; Better Life Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Medical Excellence Center; Peter Monk Heart Valve Disease Center of Excellence; Ted Rogers Centre of Excellence in Cardiac Function.
4、 Focus on scientific research and achieve fruitful results
Toronto General Hospital attaches great importance to scientific research and has many research achievements. Its University Health Network is the research institution with the most sufficient research funds in Canada. It has been rated as the first medical research institution in Canada by the well-known consulting company Research Infosource for nine consecutive years. Toronto General Hospital Research Institute is set up in Toronto General Hospital to support multi-disciplinary research in the hospital, including cardiovascular diseases, organ transplantation, regenerative medicine, diabetes, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, public mental health, etc. At present, the Institute has 411 scientists, 482 employees and published 1293 related works.
The most famous research achievement of Toronto General Hospital Institute is the discovery and isolation of insulin. In January 1922, Banting treated the first diabetes patient with bovine embryo pancreas extract in Toronto General Hospital. Recently, researchers from Toronto General Hospital drew a map of human liver cells, revealing the functions of different cells in the liver so far. This map of human liver cells is just the beginning. The research team plans to further compare the data of healthy liver cells and diseased liver cells, so as to further understand liver biology and diseases. This will also contribute to the mapping of human cells.
epilogue
Rome was not built in a day. The Toronto General Hospital has a down-to-earth influence in the field of cardiac surgery, organ transplantation and advanced surgery.
