TORONTO — Members of the Kimel family have invested another $5 million to improve the Sinai Health System’s medical imaging equipment and facilities at Mount Sinai Hospital.

This most recent donation, made earlier this month by Warren and Debbie Kimel, and Ron and Vanessa Kimel and their families, brings the total donation to $24 million over the past 10 years.

The Kimel Family Centre for Advanced Medical Imaging at Sinai Health System is part of the Joint Department of Medical Imaging (JDMI), which includes other Toronto hospitals and is “the largest imaging cluster in Canada” with seven divisions, 73 radiologists and 700 employees.

“For over a decade, the Kimel family has been our lead supporter of imaging advances in technology. This is their third major gift to the area of imaging, and as you know they are extraordinary supporters of this hospital, and this gift is just a continuation of their endorsement of Mount Sinai Hospital,” said Kevin Goldthorp, president of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation.

The donation to Sinai Health System – the result of an amalgamation earlier this year between Mount Sinai and Bridgepoint Active Healthcare – will allow the hospital to buy the latest in technology, Goldthorp said.

“It will allow us to acquire… things like interventional radiology, things like fluoroscopy [an imaging technique that uses X-rays to obtain real-time internal moving images], technology called nuclear magnetic imaging, so really, their investment is in an area where technology evolves every year,” he said.

“There is fundamental ability to improve and make it better, faster, more accurate imaging of a patient. Ninety-five per cent of patients coming through this hospital need to have some form of imaging, so the big leap forward is around trying to transition from diagnosis to actual treatment.”

Medical imaging is crucial to patient care, and nearly 200,000 medical imaging procedures – including X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and SPECT scans (single-photon emission computerized tomography scans that provides images internal organs) – are conducted annually at Mount Sinai.

Goldthorp said that because of the Kimels’ continued support, Mount Sinai patients have access to newer and better imaging equipment, and are getting better care as a result.

The hospital performs up to 15 interventional radiology procedures a day, which requires the use of imaging equipment to guide instruments such as needles, catheters and wires to target and treat tumours, bleeding, infections and blockages.

Risks and complications associated with these procedures are minimized compared to surgery, and they also cut health-care costs.

“Imaging has been fundamental to both diagnosis and increasingly, the treatment of patients, so this is a very exciting gift, because it represents their continuing endorsement of how we’ve used their past support,” Goldthorp said.

In a statement, the Kimels said that, “on behalf of our entire family, it gives us great pleasure to offer our gratitude for the exceptional care being offered at Mount Sinai. We continue to be inspired by the advances in medical imaging that are making previously unimagined treatments possible for so many patients.”

Joseph Mapa, president and CEO of Sinai Health System, praised the Kimels as exceptional philanthropic leaders.

“As a board member of the newly formed Sinai Health System, Debbie Kimel continues to inspire our community, and provide leadership as we meet the needs of our changing patient population.  On behalf of our patients, I offer my thanks to Warren and Debbie and Ron and Vanessa for this exceptional gift,” Mapa said.

The gift is part of Sinai Health System’s Campaign to Renew Sinai, which aims to transform the facilities and delivery of care.