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Toronto’s University Health Network’s first brand campaign proclaims UHN’s status as Canada’s No. 1 hospital and tells its ‘people caring for people’ story.

Changing health care best practices, whether locally or internationally, cannot be done in isolation. It takes a team, a very large team, to effect meaningful change. For every single health practitioner you encounter during a hospital visit, an army stands behind her or him, and they work together to deliver the best care possible while constantly striving to redefine what “possible” might mean.

Nowhere is this more evident than at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, which has been ranked as Canada’s No. 1 research hospital for 13 consecutive years, one of the top five hospitals in the world four years in a row and holds the title of the world’s No. 1 publicly funded hospital. With nine sites and more than 18,500 staff, UHN comprises Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto Rehab, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and The Michener Institute of Education at UHN.

‘‘The principal values for UHN are that the needs of the patients come first, quickly followed by the needs of our teams.”

This extensive network of world-class health- care institutions and impressive rankings among the world’s hospitals may take many by surprise, which one of the main reasons UHN has launched its very first branding campaign – to tell the world a little bit more about itself. The “UHNITED” campaign focuses on the teams working together across UHN and features real stories of innovation, trailblazing discoveries and lives transformed.

“True to our Canadian roots, UHN has tended to be modest about our achievements, quietly going about the business of caring for our country’s sickest patients while relentlessly pursuing discovery and innovation,” says Dr. Kevin Smith, president and CEO of UHN and one of Canada’s most respected health-care leaders. “We should all be proud that Canada is having such a profound impact on medicine worldwide. The UHNITED campaign is a celebration of TeamUHN coming together to transform health care.”

It’s not the stereotypically Canadian way to be immodest and crow about our achievements, but the UHNITED campaign does just that: for a mid-sized country of just 40 million people, we have something that’s the best in the world, and that’s the UHN.

Insulin was discovered here. The world’s first lung transplant was performed here, and UHN remains the leading and most successful transplant centre in North America and one of the top three transplant research centres in the world. UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute at Toronto Western Hospital was the first in Canada to use remote deep brain stimulation technology to treat Parkinson’s disease and is home to the largest neuromodulation program in the country. It also serves as a referral centre for other Canadian hospitals, who rely on UHN to address patient needs from assessment and treatment to recovery. All of these accomplishments reflect UHN’s core values.

“There are nearly 5,000 medical discoveries made every day within this institution and we want people across the country to feel a sense of pride in UHN.”

“The principal values for UHN are that the needs of the patients come first, quickly followed by the needs of our teams,” says Dr. Smith. “A third value is that we have to be firing on all cylinders, in excellent clinical care, outstanding research and innovation and unbelievable education of the next generation of health professionals and scientists.”

While the branding campaign speaks to the many innovations and accomplishments UHN has made in the past, it also addresses the future. UHN is the first hospital in Canada to introduce a Chief AI Scientist role and build an AI hub.

“The next economy will be a science-based economy, and I’m so excited by the opportunities of artificial intelligence,” says Dr. Smith. “When we look at what is going to change the world next, it is data and AI and the generative opportunities that come from that. We can look at reducing work that is not all that rewarding or perhaps we can’t easily afford in the future. We can also learn by taking data from around the world and seeing trends, and AI can do that. At UHN, we’re thinking about all these things – what is great about AI and what do we need to worry about regarding our patient populations as well as the provider.”

The UHNITED campaign also has other goals. One is recruitment – in order to be the best, you have to attract and retain the very best health-care practitioners and scientists. The other is fundraising as the reality is that health care institutions around the world are battling for a share of donors’ wallets because their support is critical. That’s the job of the UHN Foundation, one of two UHN fundraising arms, under the expert leadership of CEO Julie Quenneville.

“We are doing nearly $500 million in new research every year at UHN, provided by seed funding from the generosity of this community,” says Quenneville. “Philanthropy is the most important source of revenue for innovation. There are nearly 5,000 medical discoveries made every day within this institution, and we want people across the country to feel a sense of pride in UHN. We can reimagine health care if everyone is united toward the same cause.”

The singular purpose behind all advertising always has been and always will be very simple: “Your life will be better with (fill in the cause or product).” UHN’s UHNITED campaign tells a very simple yet powerful true story – tens of thousands of lives have been made better by University Health Network.

uhnfoundation.ca
www.uhn.ca
@uhn.foundation
@uhntoronto

INTERVIEW BY MARC CASTALDO