About the Foundation
Supporting Life-Saving Care is at The Heart of Everything We Do
Heart disease affects men and women, reaching across generations and races. With an aging population and more Canadians living with heart disease than ever before, the Foundation’s role in helping advance cardiovascular care has never been more essential. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is a world-class heart health centre dedicated to understanding, treating, and preventing heart disease.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation is the bridge between the generous donors of this community and the exceptional work being done at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. We create opportunities for fundraising and philanthropic support, engage with volunteers throughout the community, and celebrate the accomplishments and advancements made by the Heart Institute’s clinical, research, support staff, and volunteers. The Foundation plays a vital role in ensuring that the many critical components of world-class cardiovascular care are available to patients in our community and across the country.
The charitable donations received by the Foundation are used for equipment purchases, building improvements, programs, research, and prevention and wellness education. Without the outstanding support of donors, the Ottawa Heart Institute would not be able to purchase specialized, life-saving equipment, support research objectives and attract additional funds for researchers to advance our ability to unlock ground-breaking discoveries. These initiatives are dependent on donations and not government healthcare funding.
This generous community, through a variety of fundraising activities, is ensuring that an exceptional team of health care professionals advance cardiovascular care, saving lives today, and improving the lives of everyone living with heart disease, now and into the future.
The new Critical Care Tower opened in April 2018 – thanks to you! And while the staff is pleased to be caring for our patients in this new state of the art facility which has increased our capacity by 17%, there is still more to be done. Over the next 18 months, we will enhance our patients’ experience by adding a central registration area, escalators from the main lobby, and centralized imaging, among other improvements. Just look at what you started and, because of you, look how far we have come. It’s an exciting time for patients and staff knowing that these improvements will save more lives, and the success of this project is a reflection of the support of this community—the Heart Institute community.
~ Jim Orban
President and CEO, University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation