Bruyère

A letter from our leadership

This year, we marked an incredible milestone: the 175th anniversary of Mother Élisabeth Bruyère’s arrival to Bytown and the establishment of Ottawa’s first general hospital.

Mother Bruyère made an immediate and lasting impact on our city. Between treating patients during the typhus outbreak of 1847 and the cholera pandemic in 1854, she continued to forge ahead, caring for the most vulnerable community members with courage and determination.

Although times have changed, we see parallels with the challenges Mother Bruyère faced and those we are experiencing today with the advent of COVID-19. We have seen the pandemic’s impact on our own campuses and around the world, transforming health care in the process.

As the pandemic amplified Canada’s health care vulnerabilities for the elderly, it is readily apparent that improvements are needed across the country. As a multi-site academic health care organization, Bruyère is uniquely positioned to help provide solutions by developing products and service models for our rapidly aging population.

We have seen much kindness, courage and innovation this year. Thank you does not begin to express our gratitude to frontline workers and support staff for their continued dedication and compassion, and to our community for their tremendous support.

In the past year, we partnered with Connected Canadians to deliver digital literacy-focused workshops and one-on-one sessions to our patients and residents, education that helped patients and residents connect with their loved ones during these unprecedented times.

Bruyère has also made great strides and has increased industry partnerships. We were among the first partners in the CAN Health Network, an integrated market that will allow companies to work directly with health care organizations to understand their needs and commercialize health technologies.

In our research institute, our investigators are generating the knowledge that will help us optimize care delivery through virtual reality. They are working to improve access to services for residents in long-term care through eConsult, and delivering positive impacts on quality of life through LifeView.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to focus on providing care that promotes independence and maximizes the quality of life of the people we serve. As a partner in the regional ecosystem, we are also actively re-envisioning health care and building transitional capacity for a better system.

And as we continue to learn from and embed our response to COVID-19 in all that we do, we move towards the future with an unwavering commitment to building the next generation of care and discovery.

Louis Savoie, Board Chair

Guy Chartrand, President and CEO