Toronto Western Hospital & Toronto Western Research Institute World Firsts

1990 Identification of genes responsible for hereditary blindness, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s and Huntington’s disease.

1994 First in North America to achieve chronic deep-brain stimulation to treat patients with advanced stage Parkinson’s disease.

1996 World’s first outpatient craniotomy for brain tumour removal.

1998 First in Ontario to use Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, with real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that guides surgeons to tumour location.

1999 First to identify the individual brain cells that control pain.

2000 First treatment program to clear vascular obstruction in acute stroke.

2001 Vision scientists show that early onset glaucoma may involve two specific gene mutations.

2004 Main source of brain damage in stroke is identified; allowing development of medications to prevent it.

2005 Ontario’s first and only Gamma Knife, a machine designed to deliver radiation with pinpoint accuracy, is installed.

2006 Pioneering use of deep brain stimulation for depression.