Schulich School of Medicine Windsor Campus celebrates 15 years

Dr. Trish Valcke, MD’13: The city became her home (Mychailo Photography)

The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is celebrating 15 years on the Windsor Campus.

When it first opened in 2008, the school promised to attract and retain doctors, create health-care sector jobs, and boost the economy in Windsor and surrounding area.

Dean John Yoo said that promise is being fulfilled.

“There’s no question: Through our Windsor Campus, we’re preparing doctors who understand the distinct health care needs of people in the region – and who are staying in the community to meet those needs,” said Yoo. “They’re setting up homes and practices in Windsor, they’re helping to power the clinics and hospitals, and they’re significantly contributing to the local economy.”

Since the campus opened, there has been a 35 per cent increase in family physicians in Windsor, and 31 per cent increase in specialists.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, the Windsor-Essex region was second only to Northern Ontario in terms of provincial regions with the lowest access to physicians.

“Many of our students are from Windsor, complete their medical school and residency here, and then set up practice here,” said Dr. Larry Jacobs, associate dean of the Windsor Campus. “We’re building something that’s sustainable, and it is changing the face of what we do in health care here.”

In addition to the MD program, Windsor also offers residencies in Family Medicine and Psychiatry, and grads overwhelmingly choose to remain in the area to care for local patients after their training, said Jacobs.

More than 80 per cent of graduates from the family medicine residency program have chosen to stay in Windsor-Essex.

The new psychiatry residency program has produced four graduates to this point – three of whom have stayed in Windsor.

In real numbers, the program has added almost 100 physicians to the region, said Yoo.

While the need for more doctors persists in Windsor-Essex – like many Ontario regions – the distributed education and training that Schulich Medicine is delivering through the Windsor Campus is a promising model in the face of the ongoing strain on the health care system, Yoo said.

Windsor Campus by the Numbers

• 2008 – opening of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry – Windsor Campus
• 24 – students in 2008 charter class (Class of 2012)
• 30 – students in 2009 class (Class of 2013)
• 38 – students in each year thereafter
• 152 – students across four years of the undergraduate medical education

 

Family Medicine:

• 24 – residents in Family Medicine
• 2 – length of Family Medicine training program in years
• 3rd – year enhanced skills training in Palliative Care, Hospitalist or Emergency Medicine
• 80 – percent of Family Medicine residents to set up practice in Windsor/Essex (2023)
• 382 – students graduated since 2012 (2023)

 

Psychiatry:

• 5 – total years of Psychiatry training program
• 11 – full-time trainees in Psychiatry residency; 3 per year starting in 2023, moving to 15 full-time trainees by 2027
• 1st – specialty residency training program Schulich has launched in a distributed campus
• 2021 – first graduating class of the Psychiatry program
• 3 – psychiatrists who graduated between 2021-& 2022 and set up practice in the region (2023)

 

Residents:

• 300 – Approximate number of visiting residents a year from London, Canada, and internationally (2023)