From the left, Vivian Eliopoulos, president and CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health, Ajay Dilawri, co-founder of the Dilawri Foundation, Angela Chapman, president and CEO of the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation, and Dr. David Wood, head of cardiology at Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia Hospital, pose for a picture at an event unveiling a $60-million donation by the Dilawri Foundation for a new cardiovascular health institute and a research innovation fund in Vancouver on Thursday, June 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Greer

VANCOUVER — The head cardiologist at Vancouver General Hospital says a $60 million donation toward a new cardiovascular health institute and innovation fund will have a life-saving impact around the world.

Dr. David Wood, head of cardiology at the hospital, said Thursday that $35 million is earmarked for the new institute, while $25 million is for a new "innovation fund" to immediately bolster research, while attracting top talent in the field from all over the world.

Angela Chapman, president of the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation, said the donation from the Dilawri Foundation is the largest in the hospital foundation's history.

"That innovation fund, $25 million, completely changes the game," Wood said.

Wood said the fund will allow him and colleagues to quickly implement new ideas without having to wait for government funding, including from the United States.

He said the infrastructure to support research in the U.S. "has completely changed."

"The (National Institutes of Health), the funding of research, the (Food and Drug Administration) getting new technology devices approved is now dramatically different than it was six months ago," he said.

"I feel very bad for some of my colleagues across the border."

He said the funding is a "transformative gift" that will help attract top foreign talent, and he said he had already received "hundreds of resumés."

Chapman said the land for the Dilawri Cardiovascular Institute on West 12th Avenue in Vancouver is currently being rezoned, with a plan to begin construction in 2027 and complete it within three or four years.

"It's a big project, so it has a lot of different components that are going to take time. The rezoning is one of them," she said. "We've been working with the city since we started to purchase the land."

She said the city has been "incredibly supportive of the project."

Ajay Dilawri, whose family company owns dozens of car dealerships, said the foundation made the donation after his father sought out treatment for heart issues around the world.

Dilawri said his father was 90 years old at the time, and the "overwhelming response" from health professionals, including at the Mayo Clinic in the United States, was that he needed "invasive" and complex open-heart surgery.

But Dilawri said Wood and his team proposed a different plan.

"They were very confident that they had the expertise to avoid open- heart surgery and do a procedure that was not as invasive," Dilawri said. "Obviously, it was a sigh of relief. We were so grateful because, again, at his age, there could be complications and the risk factor is quite a bit higher. It was a godsend. It was an absolute feeling of relief."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025