SASKATOON – St. Paul’s Hospital unveiled a brand new, cutting-edge laboratory on Friday afternoon in Saskatoon.
It’s complete with a new digital transmission electron microscope (TEM) – the only one in Saskatchewan for clinical diagnosis.
TEM enables examination of tissue samples at the cellular level and is the standard for kidney care.
The total price tag for its installation in the hospital was $1.4 million.
St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation is thanking the many generous donors who contributed to the purchase, including the Mosaic Company and the Kinsmen Foundation.
Health officials say it will drastically cut down wait times for diagnosing and treating a variety of illnesses.
“It allows us to look between cells and inside of cells. And for some types of diseases, it’s simply not enough to just look at the outside of the cell,” said Dr. Joseph Blondeau, interim head of pathology and laboratory medicine for the University of Saskatchewan and Saskatoon Health Region.
“Today’s arena of diagnosing renal disease, or some neurological diseases, or some cardiac diseases, looking at cells is just not sufficient.”
With the new microscope, medical staff will be able to reduce waiting times for biopsy results from one month to possibly less than a week.
The microscope will also be used for training and research.
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