The Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) is developing and changing to adapt to constant change in its internal and external environment. The changing needs and demands of the public, the advances in knowledge and technologies, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into health care have triggered these continuing changes. Striving to adapt to these changes has made the CHUM an innovative organization. The CHUM has tapped into individual and collective creativity and intelligence, augmented by artificial intelligence, to meet these changes. It has also introduced an agile organization model and an open innovation ecosystem to create and maintain an environment favorable to innovation.
What sets the CHUM apart
Rethinking the hospital of the future is the focus of discussion and the exciting adventure of the new Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), which brought the teams of its three founding hospitals together under one roof in the fall of 2017. It is also the beginning of a major health care and social project. This project has changed a lot over the last two decades and is still being defined today.
The CHUM hospital complex is located in the heart of downtown Montreal where it occupies a full city block, in addition to being connected to a logistics building via a walkway and tunnels, and to a Metro station. A university hospital affiliated with the Université de Montréal, the CHUM provides specialty and subspecialty health care to the adult population of the province of Quebec. Its mission comprises five dimensions: health care, teaching, research, health promotion and the evaluation of technologies and intervention methods.
A complex that’s both vast and welcoming
The CHUM’s architecture acts as a bridge between the past and the future: two distinctive heritage features, namely, the steeple of the Holy Trinity Church (1865) and the Garth House (1871), were dismantled and rebuilt, stone by stone. These features, as well as the views of the city, provide visual cues that help patients, visitors, and staff find their way through the hospital complex.
The CHUM has the largest collection of works of art, implemented under the Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture du Québec: eventually, the public will be able to discover 13 works of art created by artists mindful of the CHUM’s mission. A final phase will house other outpatient clinics, offices, parking facilities, a library, and an amphitheater.
Innovation to better understand needs and humanize the patient’s hospital experience and their lifelong health care trajectory
In both cases, the goal is to optimize the patient’s hospital experience and to eliminate administrative steps in favour of health care and human dialogue.
Innovation to provide a better environment
Innovation to better meet needs (preventing, healing, treating) by tapping into the individual, collective and augmented creativity of its ecosystem
The CHUM is working on many projects that use human creativity and intelligence, and intelligence augmented by artificial intelligence or new technologies with a view to mastering them and implementing them appropriately in clinical practice, with the help of patients.
Innovation in research, its lifeblood
The CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) opened in 2013, representing the first phase of the new hospital complex. The CRCHUM is the only hospital-based institution in Quebec to cover the entire research spectrum: basic, clinical and population health research.
Its research themes are the following: cancer, cardiometabolic diseases, immunopathology, neuroscience, imaging and engineering, and the Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub.
All new management tools, treatments, devices or drugs used in the hospital are the result of research work. Research is the very foundation of innovation – it is a key element in applying any discovery intended to prevent, diagnose or treat diseases.
Innovation by the School of Artificial Intelligence in Health, a global leader
The CHUM founded the world’s first School of Artificial Intelligence in Health (SAIH). The SAIH’s focus is on the development of human capabilities and the real-world implementation of AI. The school allows its community to develop, to apply AI to the field of health, to measure its impacts for patients, teams and the health care system, and to disseminate knowledge and skills worldwide.
The SAIH deals with important themes such as the social acceptance of AI in health care, transformations to occupations, professions, practices, and teams, as well as the organization of the health care network. This school offers a variety of courses, training sessions, and learning activities to many audiences, including patients and citizens. To date, the SAIH is the result of a partnership between the CHUM, Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal
Innovation with the help of the Fondation du CHUM
The mission of the Foundation du CHUM is to provide the institution visibility and an additional source of funding. For 20 years, the Foundation du CHUM has been a catalyst and a true driving force behind the innovations accomplished by the CHUM through its many initiatives. The Foundation itself innovated recently by setting up interactive donation terminals, a first in North America. This new way of making a donation exploits the simplicity of contactless payment, using a card or a cell phone while providing a solution to visitors’ spontaneous desire to give to the CHUM.
The Chum