About Us

Who We Are - Vision and Purpose

The Five Chairs - Real Live Stories

CICF Facts

ICU Facts

Who We Are

Our Vision and Purpose

At the Canadian Intensive Care Foundation (CICF), we raise funds for life-saving intensive care research and education. Saving lives in a crisis situation is what we are all about.

At any time - regardless of age, income or geography - people find themselves in need of intensive care. Here, the most desperate cases are found. Here, research and education is most valuable. Here, knowledge can have the biggest impact on who lives and who does not.

• Four out of five ICU patients survive and recover in another area of the hospital. One out of five does not - and so the reference to Five Chairs in CICF communications.

We're committed to increasing medical professionals' understanding of the needs of critical care patients, and the treatments available for these patients. By providing some of the nation's leading intensive care researchers with grants, we ensure that tomorrow's most critically ill patients will enjoy better care and a greater chance of survival.

Vision

The Canadian Intensive Care Foundation (CICF) will be the charity of choice for Canadians - principally everyone who practices in the critical care community, regardless of their discipline.

Purpose

The Canadian Intensive Care Foundation (CICF) is a national volunteer organization dedicated to improving the care of critically ill patients by raising funds for important clinical research and education.

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Real life Stories

Five Chairs Theme

ICU - essential in the health care system chain of survival - is an individual discipline that crosses all others. While this very area of health care should be  one of the most important public concerns for research and education, it could be one of the least funded. We have to help change that.

Chairs represent real life stories

Take the time to read inspirational stories from people who have been touched by intensive care. You can read the real-life stories of:

• Deb Hutfloetz, a Kitchener woman given a second chance at life
• Colin Mason whose family turned a tragedy in a tribute
• Robbee Bowness who is a premature birth survivor

If you have experience in an ICU and would like to share your story for publicity purposes, we would be delighted to hear from you. Contact us.

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Facts About Us

CICF Facts

In 2006/07, the Canadian Intensive Care Foundation (CICF) surpassed its $1-million goal in awarding grants to initiate studies by investigators who work within the critical care environment. This achievement is the realization of a dream for leaders of the foundation and the result of support by you - our volunteers and donors - for many years.

• The foundation released more than $1 million in recent years to initiate studies by researchers in intensive care and related fields.
• In October 2007, critical care researchers received $100,000 in grants from the CICF for research to improve the quality of care in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
• The foundation also provided over $26,000 to support of critical care educational activities for all critical care disciplines such as nursing and respiratory therapy.
• The foundation awards grants annually for research projects - on or before Canadian Intensive Care Awareness Week in October.
• Canadian Intensive Care Awareness Week is designed to create awareness across the nation for the importance of critical care health and the need to advance critical care research and education.
• Intensive care awareness week also acknowledges the highly-trained professionals who care for the critically ill.
• The CICF has an affiliation with doctors and other intensive care staff at more than 365 Canadian hospitals.
• Along with generous support of donors, CICF volunteers raise funds through events and activities across Canada.
• Doctors and other health care staff, administrators, volunteers, patients and their families and business and community leaders currently support the foundation.
• Four CICF Chapters are established in Canadian centers (Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Hamilton) with others in the development stage.
• In October 2006, the foundation allocated $105,000 in research and education grants to healthcare professionals who practice critical care across Canada ($73,000 to research and $32,000 to education).
• Funds offered by the CICF support projects like research into sepsis, which affects over 800,000 Canadians per year - the equivalent of one Boeing 747 Jet every single week day - and kills nearly 300,000 Canadians per year - the equivalent of more than five Jumbo Jets crashing every single month!

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Facts About ICUs

People can find themselves in need of intensive care at any time. Currently, about 80 per cent survive and recover in other areas hospitals. With more research hopefully we can improve on this number even more.

• More than 100,000 patients are cared for in Canadian Intensive Care Units (ICUs) each year.
• About 15 per cent of all ICU patients are children.
• There are on average 120 staff in each of the 400 or more ICUs across Canada.
• The average 15-bed ICU requires about 116 health care professionals - 65 Registered Nurses, 25 Respiratory Therapists, eight Business Clerks, six Environmental Aids, six Physiotherapists, two Social Workers, one to two Chaplains, one to two Pharmacists, and one to two Dietitians.

Facts About ICU Research and Education

The ICU is the area of a hospital where patients with severe, life-threatening problems receive care. It is where the most desperate medical cases are found.

• Intensive care medicine is an area in which research is most valuable; where knowledge can have the biggest impact on who survives, and who does not.
• In North America, there are over 750,000 cases of severe sepsis or septic shock per year. Only with research will we find ways to improve outcomes.
• The CICF faces restrictions in the cash amounts for research and education grants this year.
• Volunteers and foundation leaders in communities across the country are addressing an urgent revenue position by committing to raise funds through event coordination as well as canvassing potential donors.

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You can help

We cannot achieve our goals without your help. Please help us continue to impact the lives of those like Robbee, Deb and Colin who are in most urgent need. Contact us.