Throughout our history, Women’s College Hospital has embarked on numerous research programs relating specifically to women’s health. The hospital has claimed numerous “firsts” of which it can be proud, and has pioneered several programs.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1883 | Woman’s Medical College opens |
| 1911 | Women’s College Hospital and Dispensary opens: a seven-bed hospital where medically trained women could practice medicine. |
| 1947 | WCH collaborates in the development of the simplified Pap test for detecting early symptoms of cancer, particularly of the cervix. |
| 1948 | The first Cancer Detection Clinic for women in Ontario opens. |
| 1963 | WCH becomes the first hospital in Ontario to use mammography as a diagnostic tool to detect breast cancer. |
| 1973 | The Bay Centre for Birth Control, the first hospital-supported walk-in clinic, opens. |
| 1981 | Perinatal Intensive Care Unit is declared the Regional High-Risk Pregnancy Unit – the first of its kind in Canada. |
| 1984 | WCH opens the first regional Sexual Assault Care Centre in Ontario. |
| 1987 | The Brief Psychotherapy Centre for Women, the first hospital-based outpatient therapy program in Canada, is established. |
| 1988 | WCH delivered the first test-tube quintuplets in Canada. |
| 1991 | The first colorectal cancer clinic in Toronto launched (U of T Jessie Gray Colorectal Clinic). |
| 1995 | WCH was designated a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Women’s Health, the first in the hemisphere. |
| 1996 | WCH opens of the Environmental Health Clinic, the only one of its kind in Ontario. |
| 1996 | Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative is established – Canada’s first cardiac prevention and rehabilitation program designed exclusively for women. |
| 2006 | WCH becomes Ontario’s only academic ambulatory hospital with a primary focus on women’s health as it begins operating independently under the Public Hospitals Act. |
| 2008 | Canada’s first breast implant reconstruction in a single stage is completed. |
| 2013 | WCH Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV) launches. |
| 2013 | Opening of Women’s Xchange, women’s health research knowledge translation and exchange centre based at WCH. |
| 2015 | Hospital redevelopment is completed, and phase 2 of the new state of the art facility opens to the public. |
| 2016 | WCH launches myHealthRecord, online patient medical record. |
| 2018 | The Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers at Women College Hospital launches. |
| 2018 | WCH offers transition-related surgeries – the first public hospital-based surgical program in Canada focused on providing safe and timely access to transition-related surgical care. |