COMMUNIQUé - College of Medicine - University of Saskatchewan

One of the ways the College will be able to achieve
increased enrolment will be through continued
“expansion of distributed medical education
”
Dean’s
Message
Colleagues, Alumni, Friends,
It was only a few short weeks ago we had the pleasure of welcoming
our newest undergraduate students, the Class of 2014, to the medical
profession at our White Coat Ceremony. It was the perfect opportunity
to look forward with optimism at the budding careers of these eager
students. Proud family members and friends watched as eighty-four
students received their first white coat from respected members of our
physician community. These ceremonies are a relatively new tradition in
Canadian schools and introduced here by Dr. Sheila Harding, Associate
Dean – Medical Education. They serve as an important milestone in
a learner’s academic and service life. The white coat has long been a
symbol of our profession, but for these newest members the white
coat is meant to serve as a symbolic representation of their personal
commitment to life-long learning and service to their patients and
the profession.
Later that same evening we played host to the College of Medicine’s
first Annual Homecoming BBQ. For anyone who joined us at the event,
I hope you’ll agree the southern food and bluegrass band made for an
enjoyable evening and the weather was beautiful. Be sure to reserve
your tickets early for next year’s Homecoming and let us know how we
can make it even more enjoyable. Aside from ceremonies and BBQ’s,
the hard work of running our College of Medicine has continued and
we have many successes to share with you.
I think of the eight-year renewal of our undergraduate medical
education program. In its report, the Committee on the Accreditation
of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) and its American counterpart,
the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), cited the College
of Medicine’s integrated planning processes, strong partnerships in
recruitment, education and community engagement, its leadership
in social accountability, and its “exceptionally supportive” services for
students and residents in Regina among our strengths. We are currently
preparing for a secretariat fact-finding visit in March 2011 where the
adjudicators will look at our progress on the Academic Health Sciences
project, faculty expansion and finances in preparation for an expanded
class size of 100 students.
One of the ways the College will be able to achieve increased enrolment
will be through continued expansion of distributed medical education,
both for our undergraduate students and residents. We’ve made several
strides in this regard. In July, we celebrated the expansion of our Family
Medicine Residency program to Swift Current, where four clinical
residents will receive their training. In August, twelve of our third-year
undergraduate students began their full-time studies based in Regina.
Through video-conferencing and interactive teaching technologies,
the Regina site is linked to Saskatoon and we now have the ability to
offer lectures from either location. We are planning to also increase our
programs in Prince Albert and to add new sites to our programs.
We are also working to implement the ten recommendations and five
enabling recommendations brought forward in the Association of
Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Report entitled The Future of
Medical Education in Canada (FMEC): A Collective Vision for MD Education.
This initiative and our work in this regard, is further described on
page 6. In addition to helping to continue to focus our work in social
accountability, it also will help us to further develop our biomedical
science programs that have been so successful at the undergraduate
BSc and graduate studies (MSc and PhD) level. The work that the
biomedical science departments have done in the past several years
developing a core platform for studies in Biochemistry, Physiology,
Pharmacology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Anatomy and Cell
Biology under the leadership of Dr. Nick Ovsenek has been remarkable.
To complement our work in education, we have begun turning our
time and attention to writing our College’s next integrated plan, the
third such plan we have developed as part of the University’s fouryear
planning cycle. Dr. Sheila Harding will be leading the College of
Medicine team in determining our priorities for 2012–2016. This type
of planning exercise enables us to align our academic priorities with
financial resources and helps to ensure our work at the College level
is consistent with the overall strategic directions of the University. As
we move further along in this process, information will be posted on
our web site at www.medicine.usask.ca/leadership/integrated-plan
and I encourage you, especially those of you who are members
of faculty, to engage in what is meant to be a collaborative and
empowering process.
Finally, as you may know, I am in the penultimate year of my deanship
and will not be seeking a renewal of my appointment. As such, the
University is embarking on a search process for my successor. This
position comes with many difficult trials and challenges, but is also
hugely satisfying and rewarding. I am confident the University will find
a capable leader for the College to implement the third Integrated Plan.
I hope you will enjoy this latest edition of Communiqué. Please let us
know what you think and how we can keep you better informed of the
work of the College.
Sincerely,
William Albritton
Dean, College of Medicine
University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan • College of Medicine C O M M U N I Q U É 1