Jack Zaleski introduced our guest, Dr. Brian Westerberg. Dr. Lee was in surgery so had to miss our meeting. Dr. Westerberg is the head of the Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Division at St. Paul's Hospital.
The planning for the new St. Paul’s Hospital has been going back and forth with two companies bidding on the building contract $3B value. The winning contractor has been selected but not yet announced. It’s been an interesting process.
If the move meant simply moving the current St. Paul’s to a new building it will be disappointing. Developing the vision on how to improve St. Paul’s has been a challenge -- how to translate the ideas to paper plans. This is much more difficult than Dr. Westerberg thought it would be. They have been bringing ideas from around the world, what they’ve been able to observe as best practices in operation. Many exciting things will happen in the new space.
Currently every inch of the clinic is being used. There’s no room to expand services. So the question has been: How to expand and do more in the most efficient way possible.
The footprint available in the new clinic will be much larger. The new space will be a flexible design. If a space is not being used by one, e.g., Dr. Westerberg’s office, it will be used by someone else. All the hearing and balance testing capacities will be expanded. A few up and coming techniques will be able to have space to be implemented.
They have a relationship with UBC chiro, applying for CFI grant, usually worth millions of dollars. They are looking at the synergy between the UBC work and the St. Paul’s clinic. A great collaboration to look forward to.
They will have more booths and bigger booths for hearing testing. In the current site, audiologists have been using hallways and are looking forward to the new space as well.
The other thing that needs to be clarified with the new design is the integration of different disciplines. Expanding in the general population is needed, particular in the older cohort of patients who experience many hearing and balance related issues. There will be a Healthy Centre for Aging in the new St. Paul’s.
Hearing and balance are so intertwined, such that they are almost inseparable. They have noted that cochlear implants help with, not just for hearing, but with balance issues as well.
Multi-disciplinary approach to the services offered will be one of the biggest advantages of the new St. Paul’s.
July 2026 is the target date to open. So far, it seems to still be on track for scheduling.
New St. Paul’s site is about 18 hectares. Within that there will be several different buildings. Acute care, ambulatory care, research facility. Funds for the latter is being taken care of by Providence Health.
Dr. Westerberg wants to know how to incorporate research into their clinic. They saw how beneficial it was with colleagues who have a tight relationship between clinical care and research teams, when a patient can literally be walked across the hall from the clinic to the research group for further or deeper diagnosis.
Another thing is that ear surgery is very different from other types of surgery. It will be important to have some kind of surgery simulation centre for training. New St. Paul’s will have both a dry lab and wet lab included.
They have been involved with stem cell research in conjunction with an opthamolagist in UBC. This lab is slowly closing as he approaches retirement. Therefore, they are currently in consultation with other specialists looking at potential partnerships. This is a burgeoning area, is expensive but definitely worthwhile. A lab looking at different techniques will be a wonderful addition. A phase one trial centre is being planned as part of the new St. Paul’s. In order to have that happen they will need to recruit someone who knows the language, so that understanding is there. Price tag is probably around 3-4 million.
The present site sold for just short of 1B. It is planned to be condos, though the heritage part of the building will need to be preserved. It is sad to move, thinking about the history of the building. They have as part of the planning, a heritage team whose task it is to consider how to transfer the family feel to the new hospital.
The whole planning process for the new St. Paul’s has been a very inclusive consultative process. It’s very exciting!
On another topic, Dr. Westerberg provided a brief description of what cochlear implants involve and why auditory stem cell implants are necessary in some cases. The cochlea is the organ of hearing. The electrode array differs from the cochlear implant, stimulating the hearing pathways at a level higher up than the cochlear nerve. St. Paul’s was the 3rd centre in Canada to do the surgery, Ontario & Quebec being the other two locations.
Biggest challenge: removing a tumor and putting in the electrode array. Auditory stem cell implant is placed underneath the skin behind the ear. It is a learning process for client to work with it, but the results are very promising.
In closing Jack Zaleski thanked Brian for stepping in at short notice (there was a mix up about the date). Congrats to Brian on being a 2020 recipient of a bike-a-thon award.
Note: our Rotary Club has committed to raising $6M for the new St. Paul's Rotary Hearing and Balance Centre. To donate,
CLICK HERE and choose the button under the Rotary Club of Vancouver Hearing Foundation section.
