The Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal is a leader in delivering a comprehensive range of health-related services and innovations in digital technology and medical research.
Delivering a broad array of health-related services, the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal is at the forefront—locally, nationally and globally—in developing and implementing innovations in digital technology and medical research to complement the compassionate patient-centred care provided by staff.
The network, commonly known as CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, is an interlocking array of more than 30 facilities that serve the area’s 380,000 residents, as well as numerous patients from across the Province of Quebec who are referred for specialised treatment.
With a staff of more than 13,500 (as well as more than 800 physicians), the CIUSSS provides care in one of Canada’s leading hospitals (the Jewish General Hospital), a world-renowned facility for cancer treatment and research (the Segal Cancer Centre), one of the country’s leading research facilities (the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research), as well as three specialised hospitals, five community service centres, two rehabilitation centres, six long-term care sites and two-day centres.
The right care. At the right time. In the right place.
Fundamental to the advances of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal in research and technology is the motivating philosophy of Care Everywhere. Innovations in care begin with identifying the needs of patients and then fulfilling those requirements through the acquisition and/or development of the best solutions. The objective is to strive for the right outcomes by providing the right care at the right time in the location that is the most appropriate, safest, and most convenient for patients.
New frontiers in health and social services
Programmes and services introduced by CIUSSS West-Central Montreal often serve as a model for healthcare providers across Quebec and beyond. These include:
- Hospital@Home allows certain qualified in-patients to complete their recovery at home while being continuously monitored—remotely and digitally—by a virtual care team in the hospital. This is supplemented by the in-person visits of a nurse or other healthcare professional.
- The C4 Command Centre is an electronic digital nerve centre where updated, real-time data about care across the CIUSSS is displayed on numerous screens. With this information, split-second decisions can be made to eliminate bottlenecks, improve patient flow and cope effectively with crisis situations.
- The Connected Health Record, a multi-year project now being phased in, will enable staff across the CIUSSS to turn to a single, easy-to-access platform for the latest health-related information about any healthcare user served by any facility in the network.
- Virtual Care makes it possible for patients at any location to use digital technology to consult with doctors, nurses and other professionals. Patients are often spared having to make a long, tiring and possibly medically inadvisable trip to a healthcare facility.
- OROT, a Connected Health Innovation Hub, serves as a catalyst in developing practical, innovative, digital solutions to a wide range of real-world challenges. In doing so, OROT often acts as a bridge between private entrepreneurs and the CIUSSS’s healthcare experts.
At the forefront of medical research
As one of Canada’s leading medical and health sciences research centres, the investigations at the Lady Davis Institute are concentrated along the following axes:
- Cancer (at the Segal Cancer Centre), comprising cancer prevention, cancer genetics, molecular oncology, new cancer therapies and psychosocial oncology
- Clinical epidemiology, including pharmaco-epidemiology and genetic epidemiology
- Molecular and regenerative medicine, incorporating research into stem cell biology, ageing and neurodegeneration, musculoskeletal disease, hemovascular disease and HIV/AIDS
- Psychosocial aspects of disease, including cultural psychiatry and the aetiology and treatment of mental disorders
