Expanding cardiac care across the region

Southlake Health continued to expand access to specialized cardiac care this year through new community partnerships and programs designed to bring leading edge care closer to home. 

In September 2025, Southlake expanded its Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Program into Georgina, offering patients access to supervised rehabilitation, education, and lifestyle support closer to where they live. Delivered at the Multi-use Recreational Complex (MURC), the program helps people recover from cardiac events and surgery while reducing barriers created by travel to Newmarket for care.

The Georgina expansion builds on the success of Southlake’s Bradford cardiac rehabilitation location, which opened in 2014 to improve access to care for patients in west northern York Region and south Simcoe County. Together, the community-based programs help more patients access specialized cardiac care closer to home. 

 Southlake’s Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Program now supports more than 700 patients annually, helping participants rebuild strength, improve heart health, and reduce the risk of future cardiac events. Georgina residents accounted for more than 10 per cent of total program visits in the previous year alone. 

The new program location reflects Southlake’s commitment to working alongside municipalities and community partners to improve access to care through its Distributed Health Network vision. 

Southlake also announced a new partnership with Mackenzie Health to expand access to advanced cardiac services across York Region and beyond. The multi-year collaboration will begin with the establishment of a pacemaker clinic at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and lay the foundation for future growth in specialized cardiac care. 

As a Level 7 Regional Cardiac Program, Southlake provides nearly every type of cardiac care, except heart transplants, and is recognized nationally and internationally for innovation in patient care and clinical research. Through this partnership, Southlake will support the development of additional cardiac services at Mackenzie Health over time, including implantable device clinics and future catheterization and interventional cardiac procedures, pending provincial approvals. 

Together, these initiatives reflect Southlake’s commitment to strengthening regional partnerships, expanding capacity, and ensuring more patients can access specialized cardiac care in the right place, at the right time, closer to home.