Celebrating our people
Welcome to 2016. It is hard to believe that within a few months time, we will be graduating our fifth cohort of physicians from the Schulich Medicine Windsor Program. To be sure, convocations are worthy times to celebrate, but even more so when we experience, as a School, important milestones like this.
My most recent message was submitted in late November and just a few days later the announcement of Dr. Earle Morgan’s having received the Gastroenterologist of the Year Award by the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology was made public. We were able to get a quick reference to this honour included within the newsletter and I thought it important to add my congratulations to Dr. Morgan. Not only is the Windsor/Essex community fortunate to have you practise here, our learners are fortunate to have you as one of their faculty members. Thank you Dr. Morgan for your commitment to excellence clinically and as a medical educator.
Dr. Morgan typifies the high calibre of faculty we are lucky to have in Windsor and throughout Schulich Medicine. An important feature of this newsletter is the section that profiles the people who comprise the Schulich Medicine family in Windsor. I invite you to read these stories (of faculty, learners, staff and volunteers) to gain an appreciation for the moving pieces that comprise Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.
Winter’s grip in 2016 has not been too bad for Southwestern Ontario and soon we will be seeing the beginnings of spring; because of the relatively mild winter, the transition will not be too dramatic. Before we know it, we will be waiting with anticipation to see how our fourth-year students match to their residency selections and soon afterward, we will be assembling to celebrate the Awards of Excellence recipients, as well as to wish the Medicine Class of 2016, best wishes for their future careers as physicians and health care leaders.
The Celebration of Excellence banquet is the premiere event of the Schulich Windsor Program and it is always a wonderful time. In my mind, it is actually two events rolled into one; as it turns out, the necessity to find a way to accomplish both of these celebratory events within a very short window of time, has turned out to be our “mother of invention”.
If you have not yet been to a Celebration of Excellence event, I invite you to purchase a ticket to this year’s April 12 event at the Ambassador Golf Club and witness first-hand why there is so much reason for optimism regarding medical education in Windsor/Essex.
And speaking of optimism, it seems like just yesterday when we gathered to celebrate our first group of graduating students in 2012: our so-called Charter Class.
As part of that historic gathering at the University of Windsor’s Ambassador Auditorium, those in attendance heard The Honourable Dwight Duncan (then MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh and Ontario Finance Minister) talk about his vision and efforts to establish a medical school in Windsor. As part of the Minister’s comments, he announced initial funding for a new state-of-the-art hospital for Windsor/Essex, adding that it was the natural next step to provide these new physicians a new hospital in which to care for patients.
Anybody familiar with current events in Southwestern Ontario will know that this has been a work in progress during the past five years. At the present time, Windsor’s hospitals are at stage 1B of a five-stage process; word is anticipated this spring whether the project will proceed to stage two. Should that occur, it will only be a matter of time until the project is funded for a new 1.6 million square foot acute care hospital, 80,000 square foot urgent care centre, improvements to the Tayfour Campus and development of the Ouellette Campus into an outpatient mental health and chronic disease management centre. We look forward to the outcome of these decisions.
Wishing you a healthy transition to spring!
Gerry Cooper EdD,
Associate Dean, Windsor Program
