Oshawa hospital welcomes second cohort of medical students at first-of-its kind program

Lakeridge Health in Oshawa welcomed the second cohort of future family doctors this week as 20 medical students from Queen’s University arrived for their first day of orientation as part of the first-of-its kind in Canada Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program.

“When we launched this program in partnership with Queen’s University, we did so with a clear vision: to address the pressing need for family doctors across Ontario,” said Dr. Nadia Ismiil, the Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Academic Affairs and Research at Lakeridge Health, with her words echoed by Cordelia Clarke Julien, the Chair of Lakeridge Health’s Board of Trustees.

“The reason this program is so special is because it’s about the community.”

According to the Ontario College of Family Physicians, it is estimated that 2.2 million adults in Ontario have neither a family doctor nor a primary care nurse practitioner. In Durham Region alone nearly 44,000 people are without a primary care doctor – a number that has grown by 11,000 in just two years.

The groundbreaking Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program aims to address that critical shortage.

Dr. Jane Philpott, Queen’s Dean of Health Sciences, who called the program an “innovative model of medical education,” said all the students are committed to becoming family doctors and are “immediately immersed in the joy of family medicine.”

Through the integration of classroom and workplace learning, students will begin to build relationships with the community from the start and will engage in urban centres and small communities across the region. Within six years, the program will graduate well-trained, comprehensive family physicians ready to make an immediate impact.

This program has already attracted the attention of others across the province, country and even globally, with the Queen’s-Lakeridge Health team hoping it can become a blueprint for a new way to educate future doctors and health-care professionals.

Queens’s first footprint in Oshawa happened in 2012 when the school established a Family Medicine teaching site established at Lakeridge, which was designed from the ground up to be a competency-based site, focused on the ‘Triple Cs’ of Family Medicine, Continuity and Comprehensiveness, where learning is centred around the local Family Medicine clinic.

The program received a huge boost in the spring of 2023 when the Province announced that Queens would get an additional 14 undergraduate seats and 22 post-graduate positions, with twenty undergraduate positions awarded annually to the Lakeridge Health program.

“Medical education expansion is a key part of our government’s plan to connect Durham Region’s growing population to health care closer to home,” said Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop at the time. “We’re training the next generation of Ontario doctors right here at home. Expanding the number of medical seats that prioritize Ontarians will make it easier for the homegrown doctors of tomorrow to receive training and provide world-class health care where it is needed most.”

Five of Ontario’s six existing medical schools in Ontario were allocated 14 new undergraduate seats and 22 new postgraduate medical training positions including Queen’s. Western University was allocated 16 new undergraduate seats and 22 new postgraduate medical training positions.

Ismiil said last year the collective goal is to graduate more family doctors.

“We want to provide a customized experience to prepare these future physicians for where they’re needed the most – in our communities,” she said. “Through this program, we’re creating an innovative approach to education that supports healthier populations. No doubt, graduates of this program will play a crucial role in the health of the Durham Region population for years to come. We’re focused on inspiring our students and we hope to inspire others to join in the journey.”

To learn more about the Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program, visit Family Doctors.

Lakeridge Health Oshawa