Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada (SHC Canada) have unveiled an affiliation agreement aimed at enhancing care, research, and education.
The new partnership will bring specialised paediatric orthopaedic care closer to home for families in southwestern Ontario. On the other hand, Shriners Hospitals will continue to handle and enhance access to more complex cases.
The collaboration is also intended to advance paediatric research, improve clinical care, and educate future physicians, healthcare providers, and researchers.
LHSC women’s programme vice-president Nash Syed said: “Children’s Hospital and Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada have long worked together through informal clinical collaborations and referrals, but today we’re excited to enter into a formal affiliation agreement that will have significantly more impact.”
In terms of clinical care, a newly established Shriners Rare Bone Disease Clinic at Children’s Hospital will provide treatment for children with complex bone disorders, such as osteogenesis imperfecta and limb anomalies.
The clinic aims to offer families in southwestern Ontario, who previously had to travel to Montreal for care, a more accessible option closer to home.
Additionally, starting next year, Children’s Hospital will collaborate with SHC Canada to extend this programme throughout the region.
SHC Canada specialists will visit regional hospitals twice a year to provide care in outreach clinics, further easing the management of these disorders.
For research, a Joint Quarterly Conference will begin this fall, bringing scientific teams from both hospitals together to review current research developments and explore future projects.
Furthermore, a research grant will be awarded to support projects from researchers at both institutions, focusing on improving treatments for paediatric bone diseases.
For education purposes, Joint Quarterly Education Rounds are already in progress, enabling surgical teams, including medical students, residents, and fellows, to present and tackle complex cases.
Starting in the summer of 2025, a two-year Joint Fellowship programme will be introduced, offering fellows experience in trauma care at Children’s Hospital and speciality orthopaedic care at SHC Canada.
The affiliation is supported by a $1.5m grant over five years from Shriners Children’s.
SHC Canada administrator Jacques Boissonneault said: “This affiliation has allowed us to create an exceptional framework that has opened the door to more such collaborative projects across Canada.”
