McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

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McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé de l'Université McGill (French)
McGillUniversityFacultyofMedicineLogo.jpg
Type Public
Established1829;196 years ago (1829)
Dean Lesley Fellows
Students688 MDCM, 35 MD-PhD, 10 MD-MBA
Location, ,
Campus Urban
Language English
Website https://www.mcgill.ca/medhealthsci/
McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It was established in 1829 after the Montreal Medical Institution was incorporated into McGill College as the college's first faculty; it was the first medical faculty to be established in Canada. [1] The Faculty awarded McGill’s first degree, and Canada’s first medical degree, to William Leslie Logie in 1833.” [2] [3]

Contents

There have been at least two Nobel Prize laureates who have completed their entire education at McGill University including MD at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences including Andrew Schally (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977) and David H. Hubel (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981).

History

McGill's medical building 1872-1906 Firstmedbuilding-sm.jpg
McGill's medical building 1872–1906

The Montreal Medical Institution was established in 1823 by four physicians, Andrew Fernando Holmes, John Stephenson, William Caldwell and William Robertson, all of whom had been trained at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and were involved in the foundation of the Montreal General Hospital. [4] [5] [6] In 1829 it was incorporated into McGill College as the new College's first faculty; it thus became the first Faculty of Medicine in Canada. [7] A highly didactic approach to medical education called the "Edinburgh curriculum", which consisted of two six-month courses of basic science lectures followed by two years of "walking the wards" at The Montreal General Hospital, was instituted. From 1833 to 1877, the Faculty followed the pattern set by the University of Edinburgh and required graduating students to submit an "inaugural dissertation." A database of these is available. [8] [9] [10]

Sir William Dawson, the principal of McGill, was instrumental in garnering resources for the faculty, and pioneering contributions from Thomas Roddick, Francis Shepherd, George Ross, and Sir William Osler helped transform the Victorian‑era medical school into a leader in modern medical education. Osler graduated from McGill’s MDCM program in 1872, [11] and as one of the four founding professors, helped establish the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine when it opened in 1893. [12]

In 1905, the Bishop's University Medical Faculty Montreal who established in Montreal in 1871 closed and amalgamated with McGill University to create the new McGill University Faculty of Medicine, where BU graduates such as Maude Abbott, one of the Canada's earliest female medical graduates transferred to work for McGill as the Curator of the McGill Medical Museum. [13] [14] [15]

The McGill University Health Centre was part of a $2.355 billion Redevelopment Project on three sites – the Glen, the Montreal General and Lachine hospitals. [16] A new $1.300 billion MUHC Glen site fully integrated super-hospital complex opened in 2015. [17]

A new satellite campus for McGill Medicine for a French stream MD, CM program was established in 2020 for the Outaouais region with a graduating class size of 24 and total of 96 in the program. The establishment of the program is part of a $32.5-million construction project of the Groupe de médecine familiale universitaire (GMF-U) de Gatineau. [18]

In September 2020, the Faculty of Medicine changed its name to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to reflect the growth of interprofessionalism and the diversity in the Faculty of Medicine. [19] [20]

McIntyre Medical Building in the heart of McGill's downtown campus McIntyre Medical Building - panoramio.jpg
McIntyre Medical Building in the heart of McGill's downtown campus
The Osler Library, Canada's foremost scholarly resource for the history of medicine, one of the most important libraries of its type in North America. Interior view from the second floor of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine.jpg
The Osler Library, Canada's foremost scholarly resource for the history of medicine, one of the most important libraries of its type in North America.

Education

The faculty offers a four-year MDCM degree in medicine and surgery. The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences also offers joint degree programs with other disciplines including business (M.D.–M.B.A.) and science/engineering (M.D.–Ph.D.). There is also an accelerated program for selected graduates of the Quebec college system (PRE-MED-ADM or MED-P) that combines one year of science curriculum with the four-year M.D., C.M. degrees. [22] [23] [24]

It is closely affiliated with the McGill University Faculty of Dentistry. Students of dentistry receive instruction together with their medical student colleagues for the first 18 months of their professional training. [25]

The faculty includes six schools: the School of Medicine, the Ingram School of Nursing, the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the School of Population & Global Health and the School of Biomedical Sciences. [26] [27] It also includes several research centres involved in studies on, for example, pain, neuroscience, and aging. Most of the non-clinical parts of the faculty are housed in the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building ("The Beer Can", “McMed”), situated on McGill's downtown campus on the south side of Mount Royal between Avenue des Pins and Avenue Docteur-Penfield. [28] [29]

The McGill University Faculty of Medicine was the first medical school in Canada to institute a joint MD–MBA program in 1997 in collaboration with the Desautels Faculty of Management. [30] This program allowed students to complete both degrees in five years. [31]

Affiliations

McGill University Health Centre's super hospital complex at the Glen Site opened in 2015 MUHC Superhospital (May 2015).jpg
McGill University Health Centre's super hospital complex at the Glen Site opened in 2015

McGill University Health Centre

McGill affiliate hospitals

Reputation

McGill's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences has a national and international reputation with a list of faculty and alumni, many of whom were pioneers in their respective fields. It is also ranked as the number 1 medical school nationally in Canada by Maclean's for 20 straight years (including the most recent ranking for 2025). [33] McGill's Medical School has also consistently ranked in the top medical schools worldwide and ranked 18th worldwide on the 2024 QS World University Ranking of top medical schools world-wide. [34] Particularly, among McGill University's renowned reputation of Rhodes Scholars, McGill's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences has also produced a number of Rhodes Scholars (Cecil James Falconer Parsons, Munroe Bourne, Douglas George Cameron, Alan G. Kendall, Robert Murray Mundle, John Doehu Stubbs, Geoffrey E. Dougherty, Brian James Ward, Lesley Fellows, Anne Andermann, Astrid-Christoffersen-Deb, Aleksandra Leligdowicz, Benjamin Mappin-Kasirer, Alexander Lachapelle), including one in the recent 2018 cohort. [35] For medical school students entering in fall 2020, the mean four-year undergraduate GPA was 3.87 (excluding graduate GPA), and the mean MCAT score was 32.1 (85th–88th percentile). [36] [37] [38]

Admissions to the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences M.D., C.M. program are highly competitive with an acceptance rate of 5.7% for the Class of 2026. [39]

The Department of Anatomy and Physiology at McGill University ranked 3rd globally in the 2017 QS World University Rankings after Oxford University and Cambridge. [40]

The Flexner Report

The Flexner Report, published in 1910 and commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, performed a critical evaluation of medical education in the US and Canada; it aimed to evaluate and reform the fragmented and substandard system of medical training by promoting rigorous scientific standards and closing poorly performing schools. [41] In this landmark report, McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine was highly praised as one of the premier medical schools in North America. Flexner commended McGill for its rigorous academic standards, well-qualified faculty, and strong emphasis on scientific and clinical training. [42] Unlike many institutions criticized in the report for low admission requirements and inadequate facilities, McGill was held up as a model of modern medical education, alongside Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which was lauded as the archetypal model medical school (and founded by McGill alumnus Sir William Osler). [43] [44]

Harry Houdini incident

In October 1926, renowned magician Harry Houdini was giving a lecture on exposed mediums and spiritualists at McGill University and had invited medical students to his dressing room at Montreal's Princess Theatre. J. Gordon Whitehead, a medical student and boxer, had asked Houdini if he could take a sudden punch to the stomach, as had rumoured to be the case; Houdini received several unexpected punches. [45] Feeling ill later that evening and after refusing medical treatment, Houdini was diagnosed with acute appendicitis a couple of days later and died on October 31, 1926. It remains a controversy whether Houdini died as a result of the punches or was simply unaware of a current appendicitis prior, and Whitehead was never charged. [46]

Notable faculty and alumni

Alumni

Current and past faculty members

See also

References

  1. Cruess, Richard L. "Brief history of Medicine at McGill". McGill University. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  2. Crawford, David S. (2008). "Montreal, Medicine and William Leslie Logie: McGill's First Graduate and Canada's First Medical Graduate, 175th Anniversary, 1833–2008". Osler Library Newsletter (109): 1–7.
  3. Crawford, DS. Montreal, medicine and William Leslie Logie: McGill's first graduate and Canada's first medical graduate. 175th. anniversary. [Osler Library Newsletter, No. 109, 2]
  4. "John Stephenson's Secret". McGill. McGill University. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  5. Hanaway, Joseph. "William Robertson (1784–1844)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  6. Frost, Stanley Brice (1980). McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, Volume I, 1801–1895. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. [insert page number]. ISBN   9780773510951.
  7. Hanaway, Joseph; Cruess, Richard L. (1996). McGill Medicine, Volume 1. McGill-Queen’s University Press. ISBN   9780773513242.
  8. Robert, Martin (2024). "Crafting British medicine in the Empire: the establishment of medical schools in India and Canada, 1763–1837". Medical History. 68 (Special Issue 2): 128–145. doi:10.1017/mdh.2024.6.
  9. Hanaway, Joseph; Cruess, Richard L. (1996). McGill Medicine, Volume 1. McGill-Queen’s University Press. ISBN   9780773513242.
  10. Frost, Stanley Brice (1980). McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, Volume I, 1801–1895. McGill-Queen’s University Press. p. [insert page number]. ISBN   9780773510951.
  11. Bliss, Michael (2007). William Osler: A Life in Medicine. Oxford University Press. p. 44. Retrieved 2025-08-25 via Google Books.
  12. "Founding of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine". University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  13. "The Union of the Two Medical Faculties of Bishop's and McGill". Concordia University QUESCREN. Concordia University. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  14. MacDermot, H. E. (1941). Maude Abbott: A Memoir. Macmillan. p. 45–47.
  15. "Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott Fonds". McGill University Archives Catalogue. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  16. "Former SNC-Lavalin VP pleads guilty in MUHC corruption trial – CBC News". CBC. 2018-07-11. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  17. "Preparing the Ground for Transformation: A Case Study of the MUHC's Experience" (PDF). www.healthcarecan.ca. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  18. "Campus Outaouais takes shape : Health e-News".
  19. "McGill's founding Faculty gets a new name". reporter.mcgill.ca. 29 September 2020.
  20. Woodford, Gillian (2020-09-25). "McGill's founding Faculty gets a new name". Health e-News (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences). McGill University. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  21. "Osler Library of the History of Medicine". McGill University. McGill University. Retrieved August 24, 2025.
  22. "Undergraduate Medical Programs: MDCM & MDCM–PhD & Med-P". McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  23. "Med-P Qualifying Year for CEGEP Students". McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  24. "Combined MDCM–PhD program". McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  25. "Our Schools – Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences". McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  26. Stewart, Gregory R. (2024). "Reimagining Health Professions Education: McGill's Integrated Faculty Structure". Canadian Journal of Medical Education. 9 (2): 45–58.
  27. Stewart, Gregory R. (2024). "Reimagining Health Professions Education: McGill's Integrated Faculty Structure". Canadian Journal of Medical Education. 9 (2): 45–58.
  28. "Our Schools – Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences". McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  29. "McIntyre Medical Sciences Building & Osler Library". Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill University. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  30. "McGill launches first combined MD–MBA program". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 156 (11): 1612. June 1, 1997. PMID   9164402.
  31. "McGill launches first combined MD–MBA program". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 156 (11): 1612. June 1, 1997. PMID   9164402.
  32. "MUHC at a Glance". McGill University Health Centre.
  33. "Sustained excellence: McGill tops Maclean's rankings again". 10 October 2024. Retrieved Oct 13, 2024.
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  35. "McGill announces its 2018 Rhodes Scholars". 28 November 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
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  38. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2013-09-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  39. "Admissions Profile Fall 2021 Admissions – Undergraduate entering class by admissions unit" . Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  40. "McGill ranked world's 3rd best university for study of Anatomy & Physiology". Channels.
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  44. Duffy, John (2011). "The Flexner Report — 100 Years Later". The New England Journal of Medicine. 364 (9): 821–823. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1008862. PMC   4109980 . PMID   21366474.
  45. "Houdini's Appendix | Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Health". 27 April 2021.
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  52. "Jack Wennberg, MD, MPH – Bio". The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  53. "StackPath". www.mcc.ca.
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Further reading

45°30′30″N73°34′54″W / 45.50835°N 73.58155°W / 45.50835; -73.58155