Recognizing leadership
Early in April, I had the good fortune to attend the AAMC’s Group of Regional Medical Campuses’ (GRMC) Spring Meeting; I was there in the capacity as the AFMC’s Canadian liaison representative. This group is a clearinghouse of information about and for regional medical campuses across Canada and the United States. Learn more about the GRMC
This year’s annual meeting was all the more special to me because of the Canadian content, illustrating how Canadian regional medical campuses, like ours, are ushering in a new era of innovative medical education.
There were four different Canadian medical schools at this meeting and it was apparent that Canadian contributions in this area are held in high regard. This was demonstrated by a special award presented to one of our Canadian peers from McMaster University’s Niagara Campus. In addition, the Chief Executive Officer of the AAMC was present for a keynote address and he specifically referred to RMC-related research conducted at the University of British Columbia.
As the meeting unfolded, I had the sense that we are heading in the correct direction at the Schulich Medicine - Windsor Campus; in fact, in some ways we are on the leading edge.
During my talk, I presented our School’s efforts to provide state-of-the-art housing to visiting residents and students when they come to Windsor for training. . The reaction to this talk and our ability to provide visiting learners with such wonderful accommodations at Windsor’s Medical Arts Building met with a very enthusiastic (and perhaps even a little envious) response. This of course, is just one of many examples of how we are an example of a leading distributed site.
As the 2016-17 academic year comes to a conclusion, we can rest assured that our work is paying important dividends. With this year’s graduation, we will have witnessed roughly 200 new physicians who undertook the majority of their training at the Windsor Campus.
Schulich Medicine’s residency training programs at the Windsor Campus are continuing to grow at a very respectable pace and Windsor-based faculty are increasingly being recognized for their acumen as medical educators and scholars. The most recent recipients of such important faculty awards include Drs. Mark Awuku, Amit Bagga, Heather Britten, Darren Cargill and Hema Gangam. Congratulations to each of you as you make us all proud.
And we are just as proud of all the recipients of awards which were recently handed out at our Celebration of Excellence event on April 12. I also applaud our Medicine Class of 2017 graduates and wish them well in their residency training wherever that might be.
Best wishes too to the Family Medicine residents, who will soon conclude their training at the Windsor Campus. Please remember that we hope you will return to visit with us at some point (and by the way, we are always on the look-out for additional faculty members).
As summer approaches, I wish to you and your families a safe and fun vacation time; take care and enjoy the great Canadian outdoors, or wherever your travels will take you.
Gerry Cooper, EdD
Associate Dean
