Canada’s first Inner City Health Research Unit was founded at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, under the leadership of St. Michael’s CEO Jeff Lozon, Executive Vice-President and Chief Nursing Officer Patricia Petryshen, and Psychiatrist-in-Chief Dr. Donald Wasylenki. The goals of the Unit were to support excellent care delivery at St. Michael’s Hospital for disadvantaged populations, and to research the linkages between poverty, social exclusion and poor health. Dr. Stephen Hwang, who joined St. Michael’s in 1996 as the hospital’s first inner city population health scientist, was an initial member of the ICHRU. Today, Dr. Hwang is the Director of MAP and leads a world-renowned MAP research program focused on homelessness, housing and health.