Office of Military Academic Medicine
Contact
Dr. Rich Hilsden
Director
c/o Rm HSA123, Health Sciences Addition
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry,
Western University
military.medicine@schulich.uwo.ca
Office of Military Academic Medicine
LEST WE FORGET
Schulich Medicine & Dentistry has consolidated its interactions with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) into the Office of Military Academic Medicine. In working with the Dean’s Office at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, the Office of Military Academic Medicine will lead all collaborative activities within the School regarding the CAF and provide advice to the School’s senior leadership team as related matters arise. In doing so, it hopes to facilitate the current collaboration with the CAF and to further promote growth of the collaboration.
The School has a goal to fill all the seats allocated to its undergraduate medical and dental programs by the Department of National Defence (DND), and to be an attractive option for CAF funded family medicine and specialty residents.
The School will work to harmonize, as much as possible, its selection processes with those used by CAF selection boards. The School aims to fill at least two seats in each of the CAF core specialties including: anesthesia; general surgery; orthopaedic surgery; internal medicine - critical care or infectious disease and radiology. Doing so permits short notice deployment without disruption of the home program and for the School to be a strong candidate, should CAF seek to develop centres of excellence in certain places in Canada.
Schulich Medicine & Dentistry has a long history of supporting the CAF dating back more than 100 years. The School continues to have ongoing interactions with CAF and DND in diverse areas. Military medicine which includes the care of patients wounded in conflict, care of patients injured by stress from trauma and provision of medical care in austere environments is embedded into the School’s overall mission and is reflected through its education and research programs.
More specifically, the Office will
- provide information and contact details to civilians who wish to join CAF;
- support CAF members through program application processes;
- promote opportunities for research collaborations between faculty and learners at the School and the CAF;
- support CAF members during their time at the School by providing liaison with their departments / programs and with the CAF, as well as opportunities to support their esprit de corps and opportunities for research and training collaborations;
- seek out new partners for collaboration including engineering (vehicle survival systems, platforms for far-forward surgery, personal protective equipment, vascular surgery equipment) and law (war crime documentation, protecting non-combatant status of care providers) and others.
