Southern Medical Program students learn about critical care at Kelowna General Hospital’s intensive care unit. Photo credit: Warren Brock
The first medical students to be fully educated and trained in the B.C. Interior are set to graduate from the University of British Columbia this spring.
UBC Okanagan welcomed the inaugural class of the Southern Medical Program in September 2011. Now, as part of the largest medical class in UBC history, these new doctors are preparing to enter residency training in family medicine or various specialties for the next two to five years.
“The past four years have been a great journey for both our students and our program,” says Allan Jones, Regional Associate Dean, Interior. “We are incredibly proud of these students who pioneered this program, and proud of the many players — instructors, staff, nurses and many others — who, by enabling their success, are supporting the health care needs of Interior communities.”
Students in the Southern Medical Program did most of their academic work — lectures, labs and small-group workshops — at UBC Okanagan, and received their clinical training at various hospitals and clinics throughout the Interior.
More than half of the SMP’s graduates will pursue training in primary care — family medicine, internal medicine or pediatrics. One of them, Alexandra Bond, who grew up in Surrey, will head to Vancouver to begin a five-year residency in internal medicine at UBC.
“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to complete my medical education with the Southern Medical Program’s inaugural class,” Bond says. “The SMP has a supportive learning environment that is cultivated by a team of dedicated administrative staff, talented physicians, an enthusiastic medical community, and incredible classmates. This has made for a truly exceptional experience.”
“On behalf of the Interior Health board as well as our physicians and staff, congratulations to the Southern Medical Program’s first graduating class,” says Interior Health Board Chair Erwin Malzer. “We are proud to play an important role in the future of tomorrow’s doctors, and we look forward to building upon our successful partnership with UBC.”
Interior Health Board Chair Erwin Malzer, left, met with Allan Jones and the first class of graduating students from UBC’s Southern Medical Program, at a special event at Kelowna General Hospital April 27.
Bolstered by the Southern Medical Program, UBC will be graduating 292 MD students — its largest class ever — on May 20 at UBC’s Vancouver campus. UBC’s medical education program is now the fifth-largest in North America.
The Southern Medical Program (SMP) is the newest of the Faculty of Medicine’s four regionally-distributed MD programs. Launched in September 2011, it admits 32 students annually. More than 800 Interior-based health professionals are involved in teaching medical students and residents in 30 different communities.
The SMP is delivered in partnership with Interior Health Authority and UBC Okanagan. This year marks the tenth anniversary of UBC’s distributed medical education, which was the first four-year MD curriculum to be taught across four geographically-distinct sites. In addition to the SMP, UBC has three other regional MD programs:
- The Northern Medical Program, in partnership with the University of Northern British Columbia and Northern Health
- The Island Medical Program, in partnership with the University of Victoria and the Vancouver Island Health Authority
- The Vancouver Fraser Medical Program, based at UBC Vancouver and hospitals in the Lower Mainland, in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health.
The expansion of the MD undergraduate program has been mirrored by growth of UBC’s medical residency programs. This summer, UBC will begin training 338 medical residents, its largest intake ever, from across Canada and other parts of the world.
The expansion of residency training in B.C. includes a new family medicine training site, with four residents, in the Kootenays. Two other sites in the Interior – a family medicine site in Kamloops and an emergency medicine site in Kelowna – are welcoming their second round of trainees in July.