SickKids celebrates the launch of Precision Child Health, a new era of paediatric care

(TORONTO) September 21, 2023 – Today, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) ushered in the next evolution of paediatric care with the launch of its Precision Child Health (PCH) campaign, called ‘Heal the Future.’ With PCH, SickKids aims to diagnose faster, treat smarter and predict better.

Modern medicine demands more than the traditional approach that has characterized care for generations. PCH harnesses cutting-edge science, technology, and data analysis for every child to help deliver a better outcome, accounting for individual differences in a child’s genetic makeup, environment and lifestyle – everything from their genetic code to their postal code. Ultimately, PCH will deliver next generation care for the next generation.

“PCH is more than just a shift in the approach to children’s health care. It’s a transformative leap that we believe will be defined in the months, years, and decades to come,” says Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO, SickKids.

SickKids celebrated the arrival of the ‘Heal the Future’ campaign with a larger-than-life crystal ball on the hospital lawn at 555 University Avenue, a symbol of the PCH vision to heal the future. The crystal ball honours the legacy of a late SickKids patient named Addison Hill, 14, whose determination and cancer journey helped inspire the campaign. PCH aspires to make the future clearer for patients like Addison, giving doctors and other health-care providers the tools to fight with more precision, with the goal of one day stopping illness before it strikes.

Precision health for every child is the future and SickKids is on the leading edge of making that future a reality. SickKids has already made incredible strides in developing a model of care that attends to the unique characteristics of each child, with tangible benefits for current patients. Recent medical advances include uncovering diagnoses that affect other family members, designing treatment plans informed by the patient’s genetic profile, and predicting, preventing and intercepting serious outcomes sooner.    

“We have an ambitious new call to action, Heal the Future, because we have an ambitious goal to support the hospital in our collective vision to bring PCH to every patient, so that generations to come will benefit,” says Jennifer Bernard, President and CEO, SickKids Foundation. “The promise of PCH is one of hope and action because when we can see the future, we can heal it.”

For more information, please visit HealTheFuture.ca.