Mapping our progress

Educational Excellence

Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s commitment to educational excellence is demonstrated through a broad range of innovative programs, by strengthening learner career opportunities and in a deep commitment to research and scholarship. As you’ll see in the stories below, the School is making great progress in strengthening our educational offerings to better prepare our graduates for tomorrow.

Goals:

  • Renew the Bachelor of Medical Sciences (BMSc) program through enhanced experiential learning focused on students’ career goals, careful growth, and internationalization.
  • Enhance interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming.
  • Attend to career development for BMSc, graduate, and postdoctoral learners.
  • Strengthen dental education, focusing on clinical training excellence and increased postgraduate opportunities.
  • Renew the MD curriculum, integrating education around clinical experience.
  • Create innovative opportunities for medical students through MD+.
  • Nurture excellence and leadership in postgraduate medical education.
  • Support lifelong learning through a renewed commitment to continuing professional development.
  • Build high-level quality and consistency in education programs through a dedicated academy of educators.
  • Advance education research and scholarship across the School.

Educational Excellence in Numbers

Expanding medical education

190

Schulich Medicine welcomed its largest-ever cohort of first-year MD students in 2023 - 16 more than in 2022

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

100%↑

Enrolment in the one-year, course-based Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences (IMS) program doubled in 2023, from 16 to 32 students

Strengthening learner assessment

1

competence committee

1

advisory board

Established to support students in smoothly transitioning from medical school into clinical residency training

Building a strong community of practice around competency-based medical education

94%

Schulich Medicine residency programs transitioned to “Competency by Design” system

Strengthening dental education

33%↑

Increase in applications to Schulich Dentistry over the past 5 years

Nurturing excellence in postgraduate medical education

940

Full-time and postdoctoral trainees – up 22% over previous year (769 in 2022/23)

Educational Excellence in Action

Western graduates receive Governor General’s Gold Medal

Three Western graduates are among the recipients of this year’s Governor General’s Academic Medals, announced recently.

Back to a Better Future

The School’s very first MD+ graduate is shaping her future as a psychiatrist by exploring her passion for psychiatry and history. Her subject? Patient care in 19th-century asylums.

Record number of future doctors begin training at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry

The School is welcoming the largest medical class in its history, as 190 first-year students begin their training this week.

Research Impact

Our aspiration to attain greater national and global prominence hinges on enhancing the success and impact of our research. Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s research profile is gaining momentum as we increase our share of funding opportunities and bring to the School some of the world’s top researchers, as evidenced by these stories that illustrate the recent milestones we’ve achieved.

Goals:

  • Embed a culture of research in all our education programs.
  • Recruit, enable, and retain research-intensive faculty.
  • Promote and support bench-to-bedside translational research.
  • Identify and support existing and emerging areas of strength to drive our research prominence.
  • Establish clear foci for programs, centres, and institutes.
  • (Re) invest in core facilities.
  • Launch an initiative to accelerate the design and conduct of clinical trials.
  • Facilitate interdepartmental, interdisciplinary, interfaculty, and interinstitutional collaboration that emphasizes the importance of team-based research.
  • Create investigator-centred operational processes.
  • Support effective communication and dissemination of research activities.

Research Impact in Numbers

Supporting scientific discovery and bench-to-bedside research

$164

million

Record amount of research funding generated in 2023

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

17%

More research funding than previous year

Strengthening learner assessment

$24

million

In federal funding garnered in 2023 to establish a research platform (TRIDENT) to accelerate drug development for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Training the next generation of researchers

$8.2

million

In research grants and award funding for graduate students in Basic Medical Sciences and Neuroscience in 2022/23

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

7.9%↑

Increase over previous year in research grants and awards funding for graduate students in Basic Medical Sciences and Neuroscience

Strengthening learner assessment

1

New student-directed research project course created in Biochemistry

Research Impact in Action

World AIDS Day: Decoding HIV’s stealth strategy

Virologist Stephen Barr, PhD, is on a mission to unveil and fight a ‘trickster’ HIV virus mechanism that evades the immune system.

Research shows men sleep better than women, sleep quality improves with age

Researchers at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry have unveiled crucial insights into the sleep health of middle-aged and older Canadians.

Canada’s most powerful MRI system arrives at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry

The 15.2 Tesla pre-clinical scanner – only the second of its kind in North America and sixth in the world – enables researchers to study the brain with unprecedented resolution.

Social Accountability

Equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism are foundational in making real our commitment to being a more inclusive School. We are working diligently to ensure that everyone finds a home in our enterprise. It’s the only way we can maximize our potential. As highlighted by the stories below, we are making strong and steady progress toward our goal of bringing these values to life – on campus and beyond.

Goals:

  • Respond fully to the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
  • Increase our Indigenous faculty and staff complement, including by efforts to recruit and retain our own graduates.
  • Establish an Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID), led by a new Associate Dean.
  • Embed EDI principles in all selection processes, including committee composition.
  • Improve student access for under-represented and equity-deserving groups.
  • Develop curricula that address the effects of racism on health.
  • Develop and implement antiracist practices among faculty, staff, and learners.
  • Support research and scholarship in health equity.
  • Identify and address the distinct health needs of Southwestern Ontario, including through training and retaining health professionals.

Social Accountability in Numbers

Improving access through financial assistance

891

Financial awards for Medicine and Dentistry students in 2023

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

$6.9

million

Total financial assistance for Medicine and Dentistry students in 2023

Strengthening learner assessment

23%↑

Increase in financial assistance in 2023 for Medicine and Dentistry students over previous year

275

Needs-based financial awards for Medicine and Dentistry students in 2023

7.5%↑

Increase in needs-based financial awards for Medicine and Dentistry students in 2023 over previous year

Strengthening learner assessment

$16

Distributed education partnerships with communities stretching more than 400 km from Windsor to Tobermory

Social Accountability in Action

World AIDS Day: Reflecting on a career of impact in probiotics research and community health

Professor Emeritus Gregor Reid, PhD, is being honoured with the creation of a new award - given out in his name - that recognizes his work in low- and middle-income countries through Western Heads East.

Medical students’ initiative hopes to improve health-care services for Canadian refugees

A shared passion has led Class of 2024 medical students Lotus Alphonsus, Amalka De Silva and Penelope Neocleous to create a service that helps newcomers to Canada take control of their health-care needs.

Pathology professor contributes to ‘sacred work’ of investigating missing Indigenous children

Forensic pathologist Dr. Rebekah Jacques is providing support and guidance to Indigenous families and communities as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials.

People

Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s strength is our people – our learners, faculty, and staff. Our ability to innovate and to influence health care locally and globally relies on enabling and empowering our people to reach their full potential. Here, we’ve highlighted some of the remarkable progress we’re making in advancing a culture where people feel valued, can stretch their capabilities, develop their talents and contribute in a meaningful way.

Goals:

  • Enhance opportunities for the professional development of faculty and staff.
  • Invest in leadership development for faculty, staff, and learners.
  • Acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of faculty at distributed sites and support their career development.
  • Ensure that the full range of faculty academic activities is properly valued in promotions processes.
  • Identify, develop, and support faculty whose focus is teaching and education scholarship.
  • Strengthen approaches to faculty and learner wellness.
  • Support and strengthen learner engagement.
  • Strengthen mentorship programs for faculty at all academic ranks.
  • Ensure that an ethos of respect, fairness, and belonging is embedded into the culture of departments and other groups.

People in Numbers

Investing in leadership development for faculty

8

Newly appointed Endowed Research Chairs in 2023

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

6

Newly appointed Decanal leaders in 2023 (Robby Stein, Alice Tsui, Dr. Laura Diachun, Dr. Reena Khanna, Shawn Steele, Victor Ng)

Strengthening learner assessment

5

Newly appointed Department Chairs in 2023 (Dr. Cheryle Séguin, Dr. Craig Campbell, Dr. Michael Ott, Dr. Patricia Hall, Dr. Wael Haddara)

Investing in leadership development for learners Building a strong community of practice around competency-based medical education

40+

Residents who participated in Certificate in Leadership program in 2023

Investing in leadership development for learners Building a strong community of practice around competency-based medical education

Investing in leadership development for learners Building a strong community of practice around competency-based medical education

40+

Residents who participated in Certificate in Leadership program in 2023

People in Action

Thirteen Western alumni make Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women list

Leaders in private, public sectors honoured for leadership, vision

Western professor co-founds ‘guilt-free’ luxury soap brand

Waterless, toxin- and plastic-free products also avoid chemicals and petroleum

Service to country and community inspired by medical career

Dr. Ian Ball is a Major in the Reserve Force of the Canadian Armed Forces and a member of the Office of Military Academic Medicine at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. In the lead up to Remembrance Day, he shares his experiences, his inspiration to serve and advice for students.

Partnerships

The health-care environment is changing, requiring partnerships, teams and collaborations that span our community and the globe. Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is widely recognized as facilitating a collegial working environment. As you’ll see here, we are taking strategic, concrete steps to strengthen the collaborative, interdisciplinary partnerships that will help us realize our goals.

Goals:

  • Grow our relationship with hospitals and community health care organizations, and make our collaborations visible.
  • Strengthen our relationship with the Windsor Campus and leverage its location to attract international learners.
  • Expand community-engaged learning opportunities across the School.
  • Work with communities to draw more Southwestern Ontario students, including those from under-represented groups, into biomedical sciences, public health, dentistry and medicine.
  • Raise our research profile within the region and its communities, and encourage participation among the Southwestern Ontario population.
  • Promote interfaculty and interinstitutional collaborations.
  • Establish and maintain collaborative research and education programs with key global partners.
  • Develop productive partnerships outside academia, including with industry.
  • Enhance engagement with our alumni.

Partnerships in Numbers

Working with communities to attract more students from Southwestern Ontario

17%

MD students from Southwestern Ontario in 2023

Enhancing interdisciplinarity in our graduate programming

7%

MD students from Middlesex County in 2023

Strengthening learner assessment

8%

MD students from Essex County in 2023

Strengthening our relationship with the Windsor Campus

3

MD students added to Windsor Campus in 2023

Forging key partnerships in academia and industry

1

of 24 major partners who joined the Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence and Innovation in Infectious Diseases (HI3), spearheading development of vaccines, therapeutics and other innovations to combat infectious diseases

Strengthening learner assessment

5

Newly appointed Department Chairs in 2023 (Dr. Cheryle Séguin, Dr. Craig Campbell, Dr. Michael Ott, Dr. Patricia Hall, Dr. Wael Haddara)

Partnerships in Action

Program brings together scientists and policymakers to improve communication, build relationships

How can we improve the flow of new knowledge from research into policymaking? Postdoctoral fellow Jonathan Michaels, PhD, took part in a program that brings scientists and policymakers together to break down stereotypes.

Multidisciplinary initiative to track influenza, other viruses in wastewater

Expansion of sewage surveillance project gets funding boost from province

Western signs nuclear research agreement with energy consultant Kinectrics

The partnership agreement focuses on health, energy, security and the environment. Collaborations include student training and internships, research and development activities, and knowledge mobilization.