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Hydro One, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and St. John's Rehab Hospital announce establishment of Hydro One Chair in Electrical Injury

TORONTO, June 15 - Together, Hydro One, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and St. John's Rehab Hospital are proud to announce the Hydro One Chair in Electrical Injury, a permanently endowed fund to support clinical and academic leadership in the field of electrical injury. Over the next five years, Hydro One has committed $500,000 to push forward research and treatment of electrical burn patients.

"Safety is our number one priority at Hydro One and we work very hard to avoid these types of injuries. The proper care and treatment for electrical burn patients is important not only to those of us in the electrical industry, but will benefit workers in every sector," said Tom Parkinson, Hydro One's President and CEO.

"Electrical burns are not very well understood and often the damage they do goes unseen and undiagnosed," said Dr. Joel Fish, Medical Director at the Ross Tilley Burn Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. "The research enabled by this funding will do a great deal to improve treatment and rehabilitation for burn patients."

Instead of being directed towards the work of a single individual, this endowment will fund a multi-disciplinary approach to exploring a comprehensive assessment and treatment plan to minimize the chance of permanent disability and complications from electrical injury. St. John's Rehab Hospital in Toronto will work closely with the program.

The Ross Tilley Burn Centre is a state-of-the-art facility providing tertiary care for the majority of burn injury patients in the province. It is the only program of its kind in the province providing a wide range of services from admission to follow-up and reconstructive surgery.

Since 2003, Hydro One and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have worked together to make Dr. Fish's expertise available through the hospital's teleconference capability and the NORTH Network telemedicine network to electrical burn patients across Ontario and Canada. Every year, between 600-800 workplace electrical burns occur in Canada, the vast majority of them to workers outside of the electricity sector.

About Hydro One
Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 28,000 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 125,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Ontario Government.

About Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is transforming healthcare through the dedication of its more than 10,000 staff members who provide compassionate and innovative patient focused care. An internationally recognized leader in women's health, academic research and education and an affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada's premier
health sciences centers. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for newborns, adults and the elderly, treating and preventing cancer, heart problems, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre is the comprehensive cancer program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a Cancer Care Ontario partner and fully affiliated with the
University of Toronto.

About St John's Rehab
St. John's Rehab is the only hospital in Ontario solely dedicated to specialized rehabilitation. With a unique focus on the whole person - body, mind and spirit, we work to rebuild the lives of people recovering from life-changing illness or injury. The site of Canada's only dedicated transplant rehabilitation program and Ontario's only dedicated burn rehabilitation program, St. John's Rehab is recognized as a benchmark hospital for rehabilitation care and service by the Province of Ontario and the Ontario Hospital Association.

For further information: Sunnybrook Media Relations, Laura Bristow, (416) 480-4040; Hydro One Media Relations, (416) 345-6868; St. John's Rehab Media Relations, Holly Bannerman, (416) 226-6780, Ext. 7330