Every breakthrough starts with people who believe better care is possible. Thanks to the collective generosity of several philanthropists, our landmark Urologic Sciences campaign surpassed $65 million in under two years, driving major advancements in the field through the creation of the M. H. Mohseni Institute of Urologic Sciences. 

Imagine what your support makes possible next. 

When you give, you’re not just supporting new technology. You’re investing in the bright minds behind it — bold leaders like Dr. Chew who are reimagining health care in BC. 

Your generosity makes breakthroughs like BWL possible. Plus, it sparks the next one. 

Client-centred, culturally safe care

Supporting existing programs and services, the new space is accessible, has an expanded ambulatory care area, and has rooms for health education programming. Standardized layouts allow for future flexibility in care delivery, while spacious rooms, wide hallways and large windows provide abundant natural light as well as workflow efficiencies for staff and medical staff.

“We’re excited to welcome clients from Pender and Heatley to Lily’s Community Health Centre,” said David Cawley, Mental Health Nurse at Lily’s Community Health Centre, Vancouver Coastal Health. “This new space is more centrally located, larger, brighter and more modern. By bringing complementary services together in one place, it allows our team to collaborate more closely and provide more cohesive and convenient person-centred care.”

To support the delivery of culturally safe care, VCH collaborated with the Host Nations – xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) – to create a calming, healing environment in the new space. The site features colourful mural installations by Squamish Nation artist Sinàmkin – Jody Broomfield as well as dedicated respite and smudging rooms. VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation also collaborated with Chinese Canadian artist Donna Seto, whose vibrant wall mural in the centre’s main entrance celebrates the neighbourhood’s rich heritage, resilience and community life.

Programs and services at this location will operate under the name Groundspring, which refers to the groundwater and springs that made up the False Creek mudflats in the area.

Powered by philanthropy, built for community

Lily’s Community Health Centre is supported by generous donations to VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. VCH and VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation extend its sincere gratitude to The 625 Powell Street Foundation, Peterson and the Lee Family for their generous philanthropic support.

The site is named in recognition of philanthropist Lily Lee, a nursing graduate of VGH and UBC and former public health nurse in the Downtown Eastside who is dedicated to building stronger, more resilient communities through increased access to care.

“Lily’s Community Health Centre is a powerful example of how philanthropy supports care beyond hospital walls,” said Angela Chapman, President & CEO, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. “Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, we are taking another step towards that goal — helping bring high-quality care to our community members where and when they need it most.”

Lily’s Community Health Centre occupies the first two floors of the building. The housing portion, Bob & Michael’s Place, located at 32 W. Hastings Street, opened in June 2024 and provides 231 below market homes.

Harnessing AI to improve ovarian cancer outcomes

GCI researchers are part of an international team awarded $2 million to study how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve prediction of ovarian cancer survival, guide treatment selection, and ultimately lead to better patient outcomes.

Over the last decade, new treatments have been introduced for high-grade serous ovarian cancer — the most common form of ovarian cancer. However, five-year survival rates remain low, with 70% of patients experiencing relapse.

With this grant, researchers will use state-of-the-art AI to help predict survival and guide treatment selection and clinical trial recommendations. 

The award includes a $1 million AI Accelerator Grant from the Global Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium, founded by Ovarian Cancer Canada, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, United States; Ovarian Cancer Action, United Kingdom; and Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, Australia; as well as another $1 million in compute power from Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. 

The researchers represent the Multidisciplinary Ovarian Cancer Outcomes Group (MOCOG), founded in 2012 with a goal to identify factors associated with long-term survival in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. The group includes investigators and patient advocates from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“Researchers in British Columbia have been leading the way on ovarian cancer care — including disease prevention, diagnosis and personalized treatment — for more than a decade,” said Dr. Ali Bashashati, the lead Canadian research on the project and Director of AI Research at GCI (formerly known as OVCARE). “I am proud to be part of expanding our province and nation’s leadership in artificial intelligence and ovarian cancer care on a global stage.” 

Dr. Bashashati will lead the project’s AI work with investigators from UBC, BC Cancer and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Other GCI investigators include Dr. Gillian Hanley and Dr. Brad Nelson.

Integrating cancer prevention into precision contraception

Led by GCI members Drs. David Huntsman, Gillian Hanley, and Wendy Norman, the BEACON program (Biologic basis of contracEptive choice Associated ovarian Cancer risk: from populations through cells to actiON) has been awarded $2M from CIHR’s Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention Team Grants to integrate cancer prevention into precision contraception.

The team, who secured the grant using insights gleaned from donor-funded Cyclic IF visualization technology at VGH, will study how various types of birth control influence cell growth, DNA damage, and inflammation. At the same time, they will use large-scale population data to model how changing contraceptive trends may affect ovarian cancer rates in the future. By working with end knowledge users and national partners, BEACON aims to support the development of tools and information that can shape future contraception options that also reduce cancer risk.

To date, progress in cancer prevention and contraceptive care has largely occurred in parallel. BEACON bridges these fields for the first time, bringing together a diverse team of Canada’s unparalleled leaders in cancer biology, cancer prevention, reproductive epidemiology, contraceptive research, clinical care, and knowledge mobilization.

Importantly, BEACON will establish an innovative, adaptable framework that can expand precision contraception approaches to prevent other cancers influenced by contraceptive choices, including endometrial, colorectal and breast cancers.

Greater Than Cancer

Join VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation in the fight to be Greater Than Cancer, helping VGH expand capacity to better diagnose and treat the most complex cancer cases from across the province.   

With donor support, GCI seeks to expand on its initial successes in preventing and treating ovarian cancer. They were the first in the world to demonstrate an effective surgical intervention that prevents ovarian cancer and is now globally recognized.

Through research into early detection and prevention, targeted treatments and improved survivorship care, GCI will impact women with gynecologic cancers and diseases, here in BC and beyond.

Where breakthroughs begin

“Many life-saving therapies in use today across the world started at VGH. For example, I was part of the team that pioneered opportunistic salpingectomy as a surgical intervention to reduce the risk of ovarian cancers. I joined Greater Than Cancer because I believe in the bright surgeons and scientists at VGH whose innovations continue to change standards of care.”
 
– Dr. Dianne Miller, Co-Chair, Greater Than Cancer

VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation partners with donors to fuel groundbreaking research, world-class health care teams, and life-saving treatments benefitting everyone in BC. To donate, visit vghfoundation.ca/ways-to-give. 

Watch as we inform two lucky winners of the 2025 VGH+ Millionaire Lottery that they’re about to receive life-changing prizes.

Each ticket sold in the VGH+ Millionaire Lottery supports VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, funding state-of-the-art medical equipment, groundbreaking research, and life-saving treatments across Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), UBC Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre, and Vancouver Community Health Services.

As the largest, most specialized hospital in the province — and the number one adult health care referral centre — VGH provides world-class care that patients in BC can’t get anywhere else.

When it’s serious, the people of BC depend on VGH — plus you.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s VGH+ Millionaire Lottery. With your support, we are saving lives.

Intimate partner violence damaged Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh’s heart. But it didn’t silence her.

Thanks to the specialized care she received from the women’s heart health experts at VGH, she’s here to tell her story.

Heart disease is the leading cause of hospitalization and premature death for women in Canada. And as Dr. Dosanjh explains, intimate partner violence is a significant risk factor that people don’t talk about.

A new donor-funded CT scanner at VGH is revolutionizing health care in BC, providing earlier and more precise diagnoses that improve patient outcomes.

This photon-counting CT (PC-CT) scanner rapidly produces scans with an unmatched level of detail, improving treatment for those with cardiovascular disease, traumatic injuries, and stroke patients, while revealing early signs of diseases including cancer.

VGH is one of the first hospitals in Canada to offer the photon-counting CT scanner. Housed in the Emergency Department, where up to 50% of the most common cancers are diagnosed, it is expected to be one of the busiest CT scanners in Western Canada. 

This innovative technology was funded entirely through donor support of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation’s Greater Than Cancer campaign, including an incredibly generous $3.6 million gift from Doug and Teri Loughran.

New hope against a deadly cancer

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynaecological cancer. Approximately 3,100 Canadians are diagnosed with the disease each year and about 2,000 will die from it. 

There is currently no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, meaning that most cases are diagnosed at advanced stages when treatment options are limited and survival rates are low.

The OS approach was initially developed and named by Dr. Dianne Miller, an associate professor emerita at UBC and gynaecologic oncologist with Vancouver Coastal Health and BC Cancer. She co-founded BC’s multidisciplinary ovarian cancer research team, OVCARE.

“If there is one thing better than curing cancer it’s never getting the cancer in the first place,” said Dr. Miller.  

The new study is the first to quantify how much OS reduces the risk of serous ovarian cancer—the most common and deadly subtype of the disease. It builds on previous research demonstrating that OS is safe, does not reduce the age of menopause onset, and is cost-effective for health systems.

The study analyzed population-based health data for more than 85,000 people who underwent gynaecological surgeries in BC between 2008 and 2020. The researchers compared rates of serous ovarian cancer between those who had OS and those who had similar surgeries but did not undergo the procedure.

Overall, people who had OS were 78 per cent less likely to develop serous ovarian cancer. In the rare cases where ovarian cancer occurred after OS, those cancers were found to be less biologically aggressive. The findings were validated by data collected from pathology laboratories from around the world, which suggested a similar effect.

From BC to the world

Since its introduction in BC in 2010, OS has been widely adopted, with approximately 80 per cent of hysterectomies and tubal ligation procedures in the province now including fallopian tube removal.

Globally, professional medical organizations in 24 countries now recommended OS as an ovarian cancer prevention strategy, including the Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada, which issued guidance in 2015. 

“This is the culmination of more than a decade of work that started here in BC,” said co- senior author Dr. David Huntsman, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and obstetrics and gynaecology at UBC and a distinguished scientist at VCH and BC Cancer. “The impact of OS that we report is even greater than we expected.”

The researchers say expanding global adoption of OS could prevent thousands of ovarian cancer cases worldwide each year.

Extending OS to other abdominal and pelvic surgeries where appropriate could further increase the number of people who could benefit from the prevention strategy. BC recently became the first province to expand OS to routine surgeries performed by general and urologic surgeons through a project supported by the Government of BC and Doctors of BC.

“Our hope is that more clinicians will adopt this proven approach, which has the potential to save countless lives,” said Dr. Huntsman. “Not offering this surgical add-on may leave patients unnecessarily vulnerable to this cancer.”

This research was supported with funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research, United States Department of Defense, Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, and the BC Cancer Foundation.