Thunder Bay hospital edges up in research rankings.

• Position: Brief article

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) finished 36th out of 40 on a national list of top research hospitals.

After debuting at 40 in 2010, this year's ranking is the institution's highest ever, and one notch up from last year's list.

The Top 40 list is a compilation by Research Infosource to emphasize the very important role that hospitals play in Canadian medical research.

"We can celebrate this as a very tangible indication of developments in medical research," said Dr. Bill McCready, the president-CEO of the health centre and its affiliated research institute, in a statement.

"All of the research at TBRHSC aims to improve patient care in northwestern Ontario and contribute to the future development of new treatments and services."

The centre is equipped with a PET/CT scanner used to diagnose lung cancer, and a new cyclotron, which eliminates the hospital dependency on outside sources of radioactive isotopes used for diagnostic imaging.

McCready...