TORONTO, EDMONTON, and VANCOUVER: Oct. 8, 2021 – Today, Women’s Health Collective Canada (WHCC) has announced that TD Bank Group is collaborating with Alberta Women’s Health Foundation and BC Women’s Health Foundation over the next two years.
Funding will be directed to both the OBIX Perinatal Interface System and CervixCheck programs run by two of WHCC’s founding hospital foundations – Alberta Women’s Health Foundation (AWHF) and BC Women’s Health Foundation (BCWHF). Support is being provided through the TD Ready Commitment, the Bank’s global corporate citizenship platform, and will help to accelerate progress towards elimination of cervical cancer and reduce the gap in perinatal care in Canada.
“We are very excited to announce this collaboration with TD,” said Sharlene Rutherford, President and Chief Executive Officer at Alberta Women’s Health Foundation Health Foundation and founding partner of WHCC. “Their support helps us fulfill our mission to build a more equitable and inclusive future for women’s healthcare in Canada.”
“TD’s collaboration with WHCC is a testament towards their dedication to women’s health in Canada,” said Genesa Greening, President + CEO at BC Women’s Health Foundation and founding partner of WHCC. “We look forward to having TD as a supporter for the next two years.”
The OBIX Perinatal Interface System is state-of-the-art technology designed to integrate a mother’s medical documentation with fetal surveillance. OBIX helps clinicians deliver integrated and informed care to all patients, whether they are in or out of the hospital. OBIX integrates seamlessly with Connect Care, the electronic medical record platform currently being implemented province-wide by AHS. This integration will allow medical teams to see the patient’s complete medical history as well as monitor fetal activity simultaneously on one screen.
With the support from TD, this program will impact the lives of thousands of women and children by creating a virtual and accessible bridge to the specialized medical care team and services at Lois Hole Hospital for Women (LHHW).
CervixCheck is a digital health initiative being piloted within the ACE (Accelerating Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Canada) program. CervixCheck offers self-collected HPV-based screening to women who are under screened with the goal to improve access to screening. Through CervixCheck, people due for cervix screening are informed of this service by their health care provider and invited to register through the online platform. They then receive a cervix screening kit in the mail and easily and safely complete self-collected cervix screening at home and return the kit in the mail to the testing laboratory. Women who test positive for high-risk (cancer causing) strains of HPV are contacted and referred for further management and follow-up.
This support from TD will expand the reach of CervixCheck to underserved women, helping to bridge the gap to the lifesaving screening they need.
