Nice story for the holiday season -- Brockville General Hospital in Ontario, Canada recently exceeded their annual fundraising goal and will use the donations to purchase a telepathology system for purposes of secondary consultation.

BGH raises $142,300 for laboratory

They answered the pleas and put patients at ease.

Donations to this year's Brockville and District Hospital Foundation Annual Appeal surpassed the goal of $135,000, coming in with a total of $142,300 as of Thursday.

The result has officials at Brockville General Hospital once again astounded at the generosity of local residents.

"The generosity of the community is always heartening to see," BGH chief executive officer and president Ray Marshall told The Recorder and Times. "There are so many causes out there at this time of year that seem to be doing well, and it's heartwarming and encouraging to see the continued support from the community for the hospital and our equipment needs."

This year's funds will be used to purchase a telepathology system for the hospital. The system uses electronic imaging and information transfer to allow for transmission and sharing of digital images of pathology samples – commonly referred to as "slides."

Marshall said the equipment allows staff to take a slide and digitally transmit the images to garner second opinions.

"It will speed up diagnosis," he said. "It's really focused on those cases where our local pathologist is looking for a second opinion on a particular slide."

He said in many cases it could be used to determine cancer diagnoses, which, by speeding up the process, will lead to the easing of patient anxiety.

"It is focused on being able to provide worried patients quicker response once they biopsy or a sample has been taken," he said.

The annual appeal is a mail-out campaign in which the hospital sends out a request forms to some of its previous donors and other members of the local community.

Each year, the funds raised are used to purchase a key piece or pieces of equipment for the hospital. Marshall said 6,000 letters were sent out to previous donors.

 As of Thursday, 641 people had donated to the 2011 campaign.

Funds raised in the 2010 campaign were used to purchase an orthopedic surgical package that included power equipment, positioning devices, a camera and other arthroscopic instrumentation tools.

steve.pettibone@recorder.ca