20 Years of Hope and Healing

New hospital. New hope.

For pediatric oncologist, Dr. Greg Guilcher, while the new building was certainly appealing, it was the hospital’s ambitious vision to change cancer care for children that convinced him to move to Calgary. And with the team’s lofty goals came an energy and optimism that stretched beyond the hospital walls.

“What sets Calgary apart is the community support behind it all, from investing in the hospital itself to supporting programs and research. There’s a willingness here to dream big and then make those dreams a reality,” he says.

That big vision that drew him here has indeed become reality, motivating the team to reach even higher. Today:

• Bone marrow transplants that once required months in hospital and carried severe side effects can now often be managed with far fewer complications, allowing many children to return home within weeks, or even days.
• Hospital at Home provides chemotherapy and other treatments in the comfort of patients’ homes.
• By actively contributing to international research, the team has helped raise cure rates for the most common form of childhood cancer to 90 percent.

Calgary is now a leader in pediatric CAR-T therapy, a specialized innovative form of immunotherapy.

“Over the years, we’ve been able to do things that weren’t possible before, and that’s incredibly rewarding. Hearing children tell us they have hope for their lives and their futures is what makes this work so meaningful,” — Dr. Guilcher.

Research embedded in culture and care

For Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) researcher Dr. Suzanne Tough, the move to the new facility enabled a pivotal shift for child health research in Calgary.

“Research became embedded right into the building,” she says.

This created new opportunities to share ideas, identify challenges, and develop solutions together.

That foundation and incredible community support helped fuel the creation of ACHRI in 2009, which was further strengthened with the opening of the Owerko Centre at the University of Calgary’s Child Development Centre across the street in 2015.

By bringing together experts from a broad range of disciplines, child health researchers gained new ways of understanding the complex factors that shape children’s lives and well-being, says Dr. Tough.

The result has been greater collaboration and a more innovative research ecosystem, positioning Calgary as a leader in child health discovery, with expertise in cancer, brain and mental health, pain, genetics, emergency medicine, neurocritical care, immunology, imaging, simulation and surgery — all improving outcomes for children here and around the world.

Looking at the tremendous advancements made over the past 20 years, Dr. Tough says the future of child health research is filled with possibility.

“I feel really hopeful.”

So do community leaders like Claudia Findlay, who together with her husband, Randy, was involved in the campaign to build the new Alberta Children’s Hospital and helped celebrate its opening 20 years ago.

“This wasn’t just another building project, people cared deeply about getting it right because they knew this hospital would serve children and families for generations.” — Claudia Findlay

Milestone Moments