University of Calgary
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UCalgary and CHR open largest colon cancer screening facility in Canada
CALGARY, AB - January 22, 2008 - The largest colon cancer screening facility in Canada opened its doors today in Calgary. The Forzani & MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre will see approximately 10,000 people this year, doubling that number within two years. Operated by the Faculty of Medicine in partnership with the Calgary Health Region, the centre will boost endoscopic capacity in the Calgary area by 50 per cent.
"This is a tremendous step forward in preventing and treating colon cancer," says Dr. Ron Bridges, Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs, Faculty of Medicine / Calgary Health Region. "The significant commitment that the CHR and University of Calgary have made in opening this centre reflects what we now know about this disease - we can prevent colon cancer if we detect it through screening in its earliest stages. Calgary now leads the country with a comprehensive approach and commitment to screening."
The centre, located in the University of Calgary's Teaching, Research and Wellness building, is named for its two founding donors - The Forzani Group Foundation and Calgary business leader Keith MacPhail. Through Reach!, the joint fundraising initiative of the Calgary Health Region and the University of Calgary, The Forzani Group Foundation and the MacPhail Family donated over $2.7 million toward the centre.
"What excited me most about this project from the very start is the preventative aspect," says John Forzani, President, The Forzani Group Foundation. "This isn't just about detecting cancer early; this is about preventing it all together. Through this Centre we are now able to prevent numerous cases of colon cancer from ever developing, which will have an incredible impact on the long term health of the community.
"Plans for the centre began five years ago, when the Calgary Health Region recognized the importance of expanding endoscopic capacity to meet the needs of a growing population. The Centre represents a 50% increase in endoscopic capacity in the Calgary Health Region and will improve access and shorten wait times for screening and for those with acute digestive health problems.
"With a growing and aging population, we need to have available the expertise and facilities to address specific health care issues," says Ron Stevens, Deputy Premier, Province of Alberta. "The colon cancer screening centre is an excellent example of how we can develop and apply that expertise to better meet specialized and growing capacity needs. And through the screening aspect, help diagnose these cancers sooner and perhaps prevent some patients from having to enter the health care system in the first place."
"Another significant focus of this centre is to foster public awareness, and provide medical education programs on colon cancer screening and prevention," says Dr. Bridges. "That allows us to provide exceptional patient care by focusing on wellness and prevention."
The Centre will also serve as a key facility for clinical research initiatives, including evaluating current and potential techniques for screening such as fecal occult blood testing, virtual colonography, fecal genetic testing, blood markers, and pill cameras. Population health research will explore the risk factors for colon cancer, and pursue promising new screening techniques and treatments.
"Colon cancer can be a slow and silent killer," says Denny Hop, colon cancer survivor. "A person may have no symptoms at all for many years and often by the time a person feels unwell, the cancer is markedly progressed. This centre will identify the early markers of colon cancer and provide immediate treatment, intervening before the cancer even develops. I know it will save lives."
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Calgary Health Region is leading the charge in the fight against one of the most common forms of cancer. Calgary, AB Aug. 13, 2007
CHRIS SIMNETT |
The Region, in partnership with the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine and the Division of Gastroenterology, will open a Colon Cancer Screening Centre in November that is unique in Canada because it focuses on colonoscopy to detect the disease. "It's not a cancer people usually talk about a lot," says Dr. Ron Bridges, head of the Gastroenterology Division and a major force behind the development of the screening centre. "It is common and affects men and women. The lifetime risk in Canada is about one in 16. Yet colon cancer is preventable. Colon cancer generally develops from a benign precursor polyp. The time sequence for a polyp to grow to become a cancer is in the order of 10 years."
Bridges worked with Dr. Bob Hilsden for more than four years to get the centre off the ground. It will be located on the sixth floor of the TRW building on the west side of the Foothills Medical Centre complex and will be the biggest community, non-hospital endoscopy unit in Canada. Facility staff will perform 10,000 procedures a year to start, a number expected to triple by Year 3 or 4. More than 32,000 endoscopic procedures are currently performed in the Region each year. "It's a significant increase in the number of colonoscopies we'll be doing," says Bridges. Colonoscopy, a procedure in which an endoscope is inserted into the colon, is a very efficient way to detect and remove polyps, a small, warty growth in the bowel. It doesn't have to cause any symptoms while it's growing," says Bridges of the polyp. "It doesn't cause pain, it doesn't cause alteration of bowel pattern and it doesn't necessarily cause bleeding. No one would even know it's there. The intent of the screening program is to detect and remove these precursor regions before they become cancerous. "It's the only program of its type that's focused on using colonoscopy for colon cancer screening in Canada. We will have a lot of different systems in place that we don't currently have to ensure consistent standards of screening. We will have special screening programs for families that are at really high risk; we will have recall mechanisms for people who have had polyps and cancers before to make sure they get called back when they're supposed to come back." All patient records at the centre will be stored electronically and will contain a patient's full medical history and physical information.
"The advantage is this is going to be a single repository for all of a patient's medical information," says Alaa Rostom, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Calgary. "This electronic system has a capability to do the whole scheduling, so it will be able to have a recall system, which is going to be key. In colon cancer screening, you need to be able identify if this patient needs to come back in five years, you need to be able to track the patient so people aren't missed. This system has a whole bunch of flags and reminders to allow this sort of thing to occur." The system will be able to receive and input referrals in a wide variety of formats, from web-based to faxes. In addition, all reports from the centre will be sent out electronically to the family physician or referring physician. Because of the massive growth within Calgary and area, more endoscopic capacity is urgently needed and a call for proposals that would add capacity in a non-hospital setting was put out. We focused our procedures on colon cancer screening, which is what is really driving endoscopic demand as well as resulting in lengthy waiting lists," says Bridges. "We thought that if we developed a program so that you had comprehensive care, not only during the endoscopy, but also getting people into a program where there was a consistent level of high quality care and get some innovative techniques involved, we could deliver very efficient service in an outpatient setting." Nurses, for instance, are being asked to play a major role in the centre, according to Darlene Pontifex, Clinical Operations Manager for the program.
She says licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs) will be used to their full scope, including for research, taking a lot of the load off doctors. "The doctor will only need to see the patient once, on the day of the colonoscopy," says Pontifex. "Because of the high volume, we need to be very efficient." The program is being accredited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta as a non-hospital surgical facility. Equipment will be provided in part by a $2.8 million donation from the Forzani Group Foundation. At first, people will be able to refer themselves to the centre for screening but most of the patients will come via their family doctor. "There will be an opportunity for self-referrals but we'll be following guidelines that have been established by the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology," says Bridges. "There are specific guidelines for assessing people that are of average risk, as opposed to those that are of higher risk, who have a family history or have had polyps in the past. There are specific guidelines and we will be following those guidelines. "We're working together with the Alberta Cancer Board, which has a provincial program. We're collaborating with them to ensure there's consistency there as well. We want to make sure the data we collect, we share with them."
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Forzani offers multi-million-dollar support to Colon Cancer Screening Centre
By Communications staff
Posted March 28, 2007
The Forzani Group Foundation has announced a $2.7 million gift to the Colon Cancer Screening Centre in Calgary. The centre, set to open in fall 2007, is currently under construction at the U of C's Teaching, Research and Wellness building adjacent to the Calgary Health Region's Foothills Medical Centre.
"John Forzani's incredible conviction to supporting the fight against colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Alberta, is truly overwhelming," said Dr. Ron Bridges, medical director, Colon Cancer Screening Centre, and head, Faculty of Medicine's Division of Gastroenterology.
"The Forzani Group Foundation is very proud to be part of Canada's first dedicated colon cancer screening centre," said John Forzani, president of the Forzani Group Foundation. "Colon cancer is one of the leading killers in Canada and yet it can be prevented with early detection. We are very proud to be involved in this unique project that will save lives."
The Colon Cancer Screening Centre is Canada's first dedicated centre for colon cancer screening, combining comprehensive screening, therapeutics and diagnostics to offer southern Albertans better prevention, detection, education and treatment of colon cancer. The Calgary Health Region and U of C announced finalizing the agreement for the Centre in January.
The Colon Cancer Screening Centre is expected to perform a minimum of 10,000 colonoscopies in its first year, a 50 percent increase from the Calgary Health Region's current capacity. The Centre will be independently owned and operated by the U of C's Faculty of Medicine, under the leadership of its Division of Gastroenterology.
The Forzani Group Foundation is a non-profit corporation incorporated under the Canada Corporation Act. It provides financial support to other registered charities, Canadian amateur athletics associations and other qualified donees whose activities involve the promotion of physical fitness, health and wellness, the prevention and relief of sickness and disability, or the participation and education in sports across Canada.
The U of C's Faculty of Medicine is a national leader in health research with an international reputation for excellence and innovation in health care research, education and delivery. Through its educational programs, the Faculty of Medicine trains the physicians and scientists who will lead the next generation of health practitioners. Through its clinical work, continuing medical education programs, and close relationship with the Calgary Health Region, the Faculty of Medicine moves new treatments and diagnostic techniques from the laboratory bench to the hospital bedside efficiently and effectively, improving patient care.
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