Undergraduate Program Report

Welcome to the 2020-21 academic year. There are numerous updates for Undergraduate Education to pass along. Pre-clerkship classes are currently being delivered entirely online. A special recognition to Dr. Darren Van Dam, a member of our Department, who has been one of the first course chairs to “go-online” with Year 1 Foundations of Medicine. A big welcome to our newest full-time teaching site in Strathroy – the West Middlesex Health Centre. This is our 6th full-time site joining the Byron Family Medical Centre (London), Middlesex Centre Regional Medical Centre (Ilderton), Southwest Middlesex Health Centre (Mt. Brydges), St. Joseph’s Family Medical and Dental Centre (London), and the Victoria Family Medical Centre (London).

Since clerkship for Meds 2021 was suspended due to COVID, the rotation lengths and dates have been revised. Blocks were shortened from six weeks to four weeks and clerkship has been extended to run until October 11. This has bumped the start of the Meds 2022 clerkship to October 12. It will run for 40 weeks total with eight-week blocks. New this year is eight weeks of training in Family Medicine. Four weeks will be completed in one of the six full-time teaching sites as a Family Medicine Core rotation and the second four weeks will be completed in the community as a new Family Medicine Plus rotation. This new rotation will focus on highlighting the breadth of family medicine and expose students to the many special interests that family physicians integrate into their practice. A Quality of Care project has also been introduced to reinforce Quality Improvement skills learned in Year 2.

There are also changes to medical student electives this year. No visiting electives are being permitted and Western students are not able to go to other schools for electives. All electives will be two-weeks long and run from Oct 26-Jan 18, 2021. CaRMS interviews will also all be virtual and the timeline delayed compared to previous years.

If you are a community adjunct faculty, we need your help on the Undergraduate Education Committee. We have vacancies for two or three adjunct members to join. We meet once per month for one hour via Zoom from September to June. We deal with all things undergraduate medicine, so this is your chance to help shape family medicine education at Western. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Scott McKay, Undergraduate Education Director, at scott.mckay@lhsc.on.ca. 

Thanks to everyone for their commitment to undergraduate education in Family Medicine. Be safe, stay well and do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.