The city’s eagerness to become a technology hub has landed the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre a deal that will create between six and 10 full-time jobs and mean about a million dollars to the local economy.
The hospital on Monday announced the finalization of a partnership with Cancer Care Ontario, a deal that brings a portion of the government advisory agency’s quality assurance services team to the city, an attempt to decentralize some of its workload.
Rick Skinner, CCO’s vice-president and chief information officer, said the organization picked Thunder Bay over Ottawa, Sudbury, Hamilton and Toronto because of the city’s reputation in cancer research, belief in information technology and that it has the educational output to meet workforce needs.
“Third, and most importantly, we’re interested in getting things done,” Skinner said. “And this community has a reputation for just that – accomplishing things, not talking about them. And that’s why we wanted to come here.”
The hospital will essentially become a testing ground for information technology solutions produced by CCO programmers, Skinner said. It’s an essential part of the development process, he added.
“Because it involves supporting cancer patients and the providers of cancer care, everything we develop has to be of the highest quality. People’s very lives depend on it,” Skinner said.
“So we want to get started here with quality assurance processes. That means once we develop software, we have to ensure that it operates the way we want it to.
“That team of quality assurance engineers will be located here. We hope later to be able to build on that team to expand what we do outside of quality assurance, to be the development that happens before the testing, and perhaps even the implementation that happens after the system is certified.”
That could mean as many as 25 full-time jobs in Thunder Bay, he said.
“This is tantamount to bringing a new small- to medium-sized business to Thunder Bay,” said Michael Power, regional vice-president of Cancer Care Ontario and the executive vice-president of chronic disease prevention management at the hospital.
Power said it’s his belief that Health Sciences Centre’s ability to validate the software with the help of physicians and patients, something facilities in other communities weren’t as prepared to do, was a big selling point for the hospital and Thunder Bay.
“You need to be able to touch the customer,” Power said. “In this case Cancer Care Ontario doesn’t manage patients. Hospitals and cancer centres do. So when we stood up and said we would be that connection, that conduit, that was very important.
“And we could demonstrate with evidence that we could walk that talk.”
It also helps that Thunder Bay is much more affordable than places like downtown Toronto, he added.
“The cost per employee, the cost per square foot and just the overall operating cost made this a more attractive community to work in.”
It’s a win-win decision for everyone, said hospital CEO Andree Robichaud.
“And this is only the beginning of many more partnerships and successes to come,” she said.
Power said he expects the team to be up and running by no later than March 2012.
