As the Faculty of Health continues working towards its mission to improve health outcomes worldwide, it can count on the generous support of health entrepreneurs and philanthropists Joseph and Kuttimol Kurian.
The Kurians are the leaders of Alpha Labs, a health IT business they established in Toronto 50 years ago. The company provides patients, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies in Ontario with medical laboratory services, medical clinics, diagnostic imaging testing and integrated information software solutions.
For many years, the Kurians have been strong supporters of York and the Faculty of Health, giving personally, through their company and through their Alpha Charitable Foundation to support student awards, bursaries and scholarships, as well as initiatives focused on international education and global health. They have also served in various volunteer roles: Joseph is a former member of Health’s Dean’s Advisory Council, while Kuttimol is a past member of the university’s Board of Governors and of two committees—finance and audit, and governance & human resources.
Among the Health projects they have supported is ASCEND, a collaboration between Health’s School of Nursing, and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ghana. Designed to enhance nursing education and health care delivery in the West African country, the program involves master’s-prepared nursing faculty from UHAS completing nursing PhDs at York. The expertise they bring home and share with practitioners in training will be vital in a country where nurses comprise 75% of Ghana’s health workforce, but few have nursing degrees.
To make it possible for these Ghanaian nursing students to study at York, the Kurians established the Alpha Laboratories ASCEND Scholarship, which contributes toward their living costs while they complete their coursework at York.
“It’s the kind of initiative that has a great ripple effect, because by helping one person, we are really helping their entire village,” says Kuttimol, Alpha Labs CFO. “I’m looking forward to seeing how this program develops and makes an impact on the people of Ghana.”
In 2017, the Kurians also established the Global Health Travel Awards in the Faculty of Health to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of students seeking to complete a global health project internationally. The gift provided an opportunity for students to complete a one-term placement at a health NGO in Jordan, where they worked on improving systems for purchasing, tracking and monitoring that country’s medicines and health equipment.
“The pandemic has shown us that the globe has become very small. People cannot build a wall around their country and say they are safe, and that they don’t have to worry about others,” Kuttimol says. “So health care requires an international mindset.”
