Research: From Discovery to Practice - Oakville Hospital Foundation

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A Message From Mary

This past year showed, once again, what can happen when a community stands behind its hospital. With your help, the Oakville Hospital Foundation raised a record $17.6 million for patient care at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH).

Your gifts powered The Big C Campaign, which will outfit six new chemotherapy spaces and add advanced diagnostic tools, bringing leading-edge cancer treatment closer than ever to home.

You also fuelled three breakthrough initiatives highlighted in this report:

FOCUS Clinic – a same-day urgent-symptom service that keeps cancer patients out of the Emergency Department and in the hands of a specialized team.
Transitional Aged Youth (TAY) Program – community-based mental-health support that helps 18- to 25-year-olds rebuild structure, skills, and confidence.
Emergency Department Nurse Clinical Mentor Program – pairing new nurses with seasoned mentors, slashing vacancy rates and strengthening bedside care.

Every gift – large or small – turned these ideas into reality. You can read the full stories in this Year in Review report.

The coming year holds special meaning. Ten years have flown by since the “new” OTMH opened its doors in 2015. As our community grows, so do its healthcare needs. To keep pace, we’re preparing the NXT10 Campaign, a bold plan to fund the next decade of innovation, technology, and patient-centred care.

None of this happens without you. On behalf of every patient, family member, and staff member touched by your kindness, thank you for making another historic year possible. I hope you enjoy seeing what your support achieved and I can’t wait to show you what’s next.

With deep gratitude,

Mary McPherson, CFRE

CEO, Oakville Hospital Foundation

Urgent Cancer Care, Close to Home

The FOCUS Clinic at OTMH is changing the way cancer patients receive urgent care. Opened in March 2025, the clinic offers same-day support for treatment-related symptoms, helping patients avoid Emergency visits and get care from a team that understands their needs.

Thanks to donor support, this dedicated space delivers faster, safer, more compassionate care — right when needed most.

Read Full Story

New Hope for Cancer Patients

OTMH is now offering a new cancer treatment called T-cell engaging antibodies, an advanced form of immunotherapy that helps the body target and destroy cancer cells. This treatment offers new hope for patients with myeloma, lymphoma, and lung cancer, especially when other options haven’t worked.

Thanks to donor support through The Big C campaign, the equipment and systems that support this complex care, including lab and pharmacy tools, are in place at OTMH.

Read the Full Story

Making the Transplant Process Easier for Patients

Getting a kidney transplant usually involves weeks of tests, referrals, and travel. OTMH’s One-Day Workup finishes everything in one visit.

Inspired by Director of Nephrology Gail Burns’s experience guiding her son Brandon through a transplant from his brother Hunter, OTMH became the first hospital to offer this same-day pathway. Donor-funded lab and diagnostic tools power every step, turning one family’s challenge into a province-wide breakthrough. Discover how your support makes it possible.

Read the Full Story

Restoring Confidence After Breast Cancer

Ontario Health honoured Halton Healthcare with a Quality & Innovation Award for the Restore-Me Clinic at OTMH.

Restore-Me is Ontario’s first hospital-based program offering physician-funded 3-D nipple-areola tattooing, a vital finishing step in breast reconstruction. Donor support lets OTMH deliver this service on-site, removing private fees and long travel. Survivors gain confidence, dignity, and closure, and referrals keep rising. Restore-Me is making post-cancer care more accessible and deeply compassionate.

Read the Full Story

Helping Young Adults Take Their Next Step

Young adults 18-25 face big mental health and life-transition challenges, worsened by COVID. With donor support, OTMH created the TAY Program, bridging the gap between youth and adult services.

Outreach counsellors meet participants on campus, in coffee shops, and in the community; they provide one-on-one guidance, goal-setting, and life-skills training such as résumé writing. Already, more than 30 youth have regained confidence and re-engaged in school, work, and volunteering.

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Supporting Nurses, Strengthening Care

When COVID-19 left more than half of OTMH’s Emergency Department nursing positions vacant, donors stepped up. Their support launched the Emergency Department Nurse Clinical Mentor Program, pairing seasoned nurses with new recruits for on-the-job coaching. Vacancy rates have plunged from 50% to under 5%, nurse retention has soared to 85%, and patients benefit from safer, faster care. Investing in people is building a stronger, more resilient hospital.

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Home the Same Day

Not long ago, surgery meant several nights in a hospital bed. Today at OTMH, many patients are home by evening. Donor-funded robotics and surgical equipment give surgeons the precision to operate through smaller incisions, which means less pain and faster healing.

Behind the technology, Halton Healthcare teams redesigned every step of the journey, from pre-surgery education to digital recovery tools that guide patients at home.

Your support is helping patients recover where they heal best.

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Healing at Home: Care That Continues Beyond the Hospital

Recovery is better in your own bed. Last year, the Halton@Home program helped more than 750 patients leave the hospital sooner and finish healing at home, a 250 percent increase over the year before.

Nurses, therapists, and Patient Care Navigators deliver coordinated care right in patients’ living rooms, with new pathways for respiratory care and support after an Emergency visit.

Donor support helps carry care beyond hospital walls, keeping patients comfortable, independent, and out of hospital beds they don’t need.

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Inside Halton's Mobile Mental Health Program

When someone in Halton faces a mental health crisis, help now arrives at their door.

The new Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team pairs a healthcare professional with a specially trained police officer, responding directly to urgent calls. Sometimes that means a calm conversation. Other times, a connection to community supports. Hospital visits happen only when no safer option exists.

Donor support helps ensure that no one in our community faces a crisis alone.

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A Clearer Picture of Care

When it’s a stroke, a trauma, or a possible cancer, every second counts. OTMH’s new state-of-the-art CT scanner delivers faster scans and clearer images with lower radiation exposure, giving medical teams the clarity to diagnose accurately and act quickly.

Donors made this possible. Because of you, world-class diagnostic technology is now here at home, ready for every patient who walks through our doors.

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Research: From Discovery to Practice

Clinical trials usually mean travelling to big-city hospitals. Not anymore. This year, 27 active studies ran right at OTMH, spanning cancer care, heart health, kidney care, emergency medicine, and more.

Patients here joined international trials, including a global Phase III study of a new stroke prevention therapy, gaining access to emerging treatments at the hospital they already know.

Donor support helped build one of Ontario’s leading community-based research programs, connecting discovery to care for the people of Halton.

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