Like a teenage growth spurt, the construction project that we have all marveled at as we drove along the highway in recent years has materialised before our very eyes into a vision of considerable beauty - we are of course referring to the huge hospital complex known as MUHC (or CUSM in French!). I might vouchsafe that it is not only beautiful in terms of its concept, scope and ambition, but that it is as beautiful by design and makes one incredible impact visually, whether passing by on the 20 or up close and personal with it.
The latter was rather remarkably possible last Sunday when the Glen site was opened to the public and allowed us to get inside and dig deep into the heart of this beast of a building (as far as we were allowed, anyway!) and see what all the fuss was about. I can inform you that it didn't disappoint and actually made for both a very informative and fun day out, via the various tours that were on offer - these included tours of the Cedars Cancer Centre, the RI-MUHC, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour and a general tour.
My guest and I (the specialty tours were sold out, and tickets were like gold dust on the big day!) had the luxury of having access to the tour of the new research institute (RI-MUHC), which will comprise some 500 senior researchers and 1,200 graduate students, postdocs and fellows all pursuing work that is designed to strengthen the "bench to bedside" ethos that is a fundamental of the new institute. As a scientist, there is nothing like seeing a brand new untouched suite of laboratories, one module of which is shown above, and all that shiny new big equipment adjacent - it's a bit like a chef seeing a brand new kitchen and itching to get working in it, but additionally it brings back memories of when I was actually doing the experiments at the bench myself!
However, it's not all about science, and given that 1% of the reported $250M spent (of which around $65M went on ultramodern equipment) must furnish artistic installations in such buildings, well, dotted around the place, inside and out, you can see some rather unique pieces. These include "Prendre le pouls", a giant stethoscope sitting outside on the cafeteria terrace by Cooke-Sasseville, Linda Covit's "Havre", out front, and "Lustre", a stunning hung model of hemoglobin (made by Montreal artist Nicolas Baier) comprising some 4,500 pieces that have a huge presence in the atrium entrance to the RI-MUHC.
Such pieces, along with the refreshing color schemes used in the various main sections of the hospital are a very nice touch and will lighten the mood in what surely will be some darker days that represent the reality of daily life in a major hospital. The giant 8 metre high stethoscope is particularly poignant in that the headset turned towards the hospital and the chestpiece directed out towards the population is meant to represent the doctor-patient relationship, and how important listening is in that regard. For sure on the day of the tour, that stethoscope must have heard the beating hearts of an eager and excited few thousand hearts that passed by it on the walkway into the building.
As fun as the tour was, upon hitting the patient facilities one did realise the full gravity of what will be going on there once the doors are officially open, and patients from the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal Chest Institute and Shriner's Hospital (and more) all become residents in spring next year. There is a state-of-the-art emergency department, 14 operating rooms, 15 intervention centres and some 346 single-patient adult rooms (500 including children) that are designed to make the patient as comfortable as possible.
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The new operating rooms looked eerily empty but no doubt will soon be ready to be truly operational (sorry!), the single-patient en suite rooms were bright and cheery with natural light beaming in from seemingly every window, and the chic red signature of the clinical specimens lab gave a definite impression of serious business - not least by way of the totally 2015 pneumatic system that is set to deliver samples from emergency or operation rooms from afar with turnaround in many cases inside an hour! The pneumatic system was up-and-running in a Singapore hospital and apparently a team from MUHC went there to assess it and then bring it on board in Montreal.
All in all, it was a fascinating look inside a fascinating new superhospital for Montreal, and it surely crystallises for many what was originally only a concept, if not just a dream, and one seemingly so far away from becoming reality. But it's here, it's now, and by very early 2015, research begins at the brand new RI-MUHC and we are as delighted about that as anyone - maybe more actually, because some of the research projects in AmorChem's investment portfolio are about to be housed in that gorgeous new facility - and if that further inspires and facilitates translation of research from "bench to bedside" then we are all smiles about that!
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