Located in the Blusson Pavilion of the Vancouver General Hospital, The Blusson Spinal Cord Centre (ICORD) is dedicated to advancing world-leading integrated research and care for people with spinal cord injury. This facility is a "translational research centre" where the basic research begins, is developed, tested, and eventually used to treat patients, all within the same building. This type of facility is about relationships – between scientists and students, between patients and physicians – and the vision is that by integrating research and treatment, new discoveries can be quickly translated into effective therapies and treatments to aid people who are living with spinal cord injury. Flexible lab design responds to evolving research needs and inspires more collaboration and new approaches to research questions.
"The building was conceived of as a layer cake of different functions. We have different types of clinical care overlapping and being interspersed with floors that are dedicated to discovery science." Kevin Humeniuk, Architect
The centre brings together researchers and practitioners from the basic sciences, social sciences, medicine, surgery, rehabilitation, engineering, kinesiology, education, and the humanities. The facility includes the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) facilities (clinical investigations, rehabilitation research, medical discovery/research science), The Rick Hansen Institute, the Brenda and David McLean Integrated Spine Clinic (outpatient), as well as physician offices, vivarium and support spaces.