The renovations will cost $11 million in total, the remainder of which is still being fundraised by the foundation.

Beyond the centre’s renovation, the work continues.

“We have significant priorities in the area of women’s health and also in the area of innovation and surgery,” he said. “We’re funding some minimally invasive endoscopic spinal surgery like cardiac work through cardiac catheterization labs . . . other interventional radiology suites that we’re working on in hybrid operating rooms where minimally invasive techniques can be used.”

The funding and, in turn, the progress it supports not only improves patient outcomes but also “capacity for the system,” he said.

“Hospitals in the world can always do better. Technology is changing, and there’s always something that where outcomes can be improved. We’re really trying to be the catalyst for those improvements, to bring treatments that are available to patients today, rather than waiting for them to be available down the road.”

Today, Kennedy is 86 years old and is in “good health,” Sarah said.

To have the auditorium named after him and his late wife is a full circle moment for him, dating back to his younger days when he watched a mentor give a significant donation to the medical centre at the University of Western Ontario.

“Someone he looked up to made philanthropy a critical part of their legacy,” she said. “He had always wanted to do that.”

Original source: ca