St. Michael's receives $5 million McCain donation for therapeutic endoscopy program

Wallace and Margaret McCain have donated $5 million to St. Michael's Hospital for its therapeutic endoscopy program.

The donation will allow St. Michael's to recruit another world-class physician-researcher for its therapeutic endoscopy program, which is already one of the largest and most advanced in Canada, treating more than 14,000 patients a year. This person would hold the Wallace and Margaret McCain Chair in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

"This generous gift will help make our therapeutic endoscopy program Canada's own Mayo Clinic in this area, a world-class outcomes centre with the best people and the best technology," said Dr. Robert Howard, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. "This centre of excellence will improve the patient experience and take a new approach to disease."

Endoscopy is the examination of the gastrointestinal tract - the esophagus, stomach, bile duct, pancreas, small bowel and large bowel - with a flexible videoscope. Therapeutic means the procedure can provide treatment (therapy), in addition to a diagnosis.

Therapeutic endoscopy is the treatment of choice for a growing number of problems, such as removing polyps or early-stage cancers, stopping internal bleeding, relieving blockages and providing palliative care for patients with late-stage cancer. It is a minimally invasive procedure, meaning no incision is required and patients have shorter hospital stays and recovery times.

St. Michael's is the only hospital in the Greater Toronto Area that offers the full range of advanced endoscopic services. Others hospitals in the area, elsewhere in Ontario and even from across Canada, send their most challenging gastro-intestinal cases to St. Michael's for therapeutic endoscopy.

Wallace McCain is the co-founder of McCain Foods Ltd., one of the largest frozen food companies in the world, and a member of the St. Michael's Hospital Foundation board of directors. Margaret McCain is a former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.