Durham College and Lakeridge Health sign collaboration agreement

Institutional partnership will focus on health innovations, applied research, experiential learning 

Oshawa, ON – Durham College and Lakeridge Health have signed a five-year collaboration agreement focused on growing experiential learning, applied research and innovative education to address issues in health care.

“Durham College and Lakeridge Health have a long history of working together and this agreement illustrates the ways in which our values so closely align,” said Debbie McKee Demczyk, dean of the college’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ORSIE). “This is an exciting new chapter in our relationship – one that will provide exceptional opportunities for our students and faculty and make positive impacts on the quality of health care our community receives.”

Under the agreement, the college and hospital will collaborate to explore and pursue the following five objectives:

  • Identify and develop initiatives focused on creating practical, scalable and sustainable solutions to health care issues.
  • Work with companies to develop, disseminate and potentially commercialize technologies.
  • Develop and coordinate joint experiential learning opportunities, applied research and innovative educational activities.
  • Contribute to seminars, workshops and academic initiatives that drive the business goals of both organizations.
  • Share access to facilities, equipment, systems, information and data within the boundaries of protecting confidentiality and personal information.

The collaboration agreement supports two specialized areas of research for ORSIE and Durham College: enabling technologies of the future and cultivating healthy lives and resilient communities. It also aligns with the college’s first degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management (BHCTM), announced earlier this year. The first program of its kind in Canada, the BHCTM program aims to address an identified need in the health care sector for professionals with a hybrid skill set of expertise in medical technologies, life sciences and business practices.

Lakeridge Health is a five-hospital health system with approximately 15 community locations across Durham Region and 6,000 employees dedicated to providing excellence – every moment, every day. For Lakeridge Health, this partnership supports a pathway to innovation with a focus on excellent patient care and the potential to increase opportunities for experiential learning and applied research.

“Innovation is one of the core values of Lakeridge Health and we are looking forward to working in partnership with Durham College to develop innovative health care solutions while working with students, faculty and community partners,” said Len Kleine, director of Business Development, Lakeridge Health, and one of the organizational leads for Innovation.

 

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 12,000 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market. The college is also set to launch its first four-year degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management, in September 2018.

The Oshawa campus features the state-of-the art Student Services building and will soon feature the Centre for Collaborative Education, a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. The new facility will bring together local, Indigenous and global communities, providing a new home for several of the college’s most innovative and ground-breaking programs.

The Whitby campus features the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

About Lakeridge Health
Lakeridge Health is a five-hospital health system with hospitals in Ajax, Bowmanville, Oshawa, Port Perry and Whitby and more than a dozen community health locations across Durham Region. Home to the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre, Lakeridge Health also provides regional mental health, eye care and nephrology services.

Lakeridge Health has four acute care hospitals in Ajax, Bowmanville, Port Perry and Oshawa, with Emergency Departments that have the second highest emergency volumes in Ontario, and a specialty-service hospital in Whitby that specializes in comprehensive rehabilitation, complex continuing care and nephrology services. With a team of more than 5,000 staff and 650 doctors, Lakeridge Health provides safe, quality care to residents across Durham Region. 

For more information, visit www.lakeridgehealth.on.ca or call 905.576.8711.

Media contacts:

Melissa McLean
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 2952
melissa.mclean@durhamcollege.ca

Communications and Community Development
Lakeridge Health
905.576.8711 ext. 4317
communications@lakeridgehealth.on.ca