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]
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
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]
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]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.[27][28]
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.[29] This program allowed students to complete both degrees in five years.[30]
Affiliations
McGill University Health Centre's super hospital complex at the Glen Site opened in 2015
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).[32] 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.[33] 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.[34] 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).[35][36][37]
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.[38]
The Department of Anatomy and Physiology at McGill University ranked 3rd globally in the 2017 QS World University Rankings after Oxford University and Cambridge.[39]
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.[40] 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.[41] 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).[42][43]
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.[44] 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.[45]
Notable faculty and alumni
Alumni
Maude Abbott — One of Canada's earliest female medical graduates, international expert on congenital heart disease, namesake of Maude Abbott Medical Museum Maude Abbott received her M.D. C.M. degree from Bishop's College in 1894 as McGill did not then admit females to study medicine. Bishop's College Medical School was absorbed by McGill in 1905.
Daniel Borsuk O.Q., M.S.C., B.Sc. 2000, M.D., C.M. 2006, M.B.A. 2006 — performed first face transplant in Canada
Thomas Chang O.C., M.D., C.M. (1961), Ph.D., FRCP(C), FRS(C) — pioneer in biomedical engineering, “Father of Artificial Cells”
George Edward Bomberry M.D., C.M. 1875 First indigenous graduate of McGill University. Bomberry, a hereditary chief of the Cayuga (Gayogohó:nợ), was born on the Tuscarora Reserve on April 14, 1849. He died on January 29, 1879.[46]
Robert Thirsk O.C., O.B.C., M.D., C.M. (1982), M.S., M.B.A. — Canadian engineer and physician, astronaut, and chancellor emeritus University of Calgary.
Phil Gold, B.Sc. 1957, M.Sc. 1961, M.D., C.M. 1961, Ph.D. 1965 — physician, scientist, and professor, discoverer of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), the first biomarker for cancer
Thomas A. Ban Res. Psychiatry 1960 — founding director of the first Division of Psychopharmacology in a Department of Psychiatry in the world
Katherine O'Brien, M.D., C.M. 1988 — infectious disease expert; Director of the World Health Organization's Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals
Andrew Fernando Holmes — first dean and co-founder of McGill College Medical Faculty. Holmes received his medical degree from Edinburgh University in 1819; McGill awarded him an (honorary) An Eundem M.D. in 1843.
Chi-Ming Chow M.D., C.M. 1990 — – cardiologist and board member of the Heart and Stroke Foundation
David Hunter Hubel B.Sc. 1947, M.D., C.M. 1951 — Nobel laureate in Physiology (1981)
William Reginald Morse M.D., C.M. 1902 — one four founders of the West China Union University in Chengdu, Sichuan, in 1914; went on to become dean of the medical faculty
Robert Benjamin Greenblatt M.D., C.M. 1932 — prominent endocrinologist, pioneered endocrinology as a specialty in medicine, known for the development of the sequential oral contraceptive pill and the oral fertility pill
Perry Rosenthal M.D., C.M. 1958 — professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and developer of the first gas-permeable scleral contact lens
William Feindel M.D., C.M. 1945 — neurosurgeon and neuroscientist
Emil Skamene residency in allergy and immunology 1974 — immunologist
William Henry Drummond — Irish-born Canadian poet, physician. Drummond actually failed his medical degree at McGill but received his M.D.C.M. from Bishop's College. When Bishop's merged with McGill he, like several other professors there, received an Ad Eundem M.D.C.M. degree from McGill in 1905.
Alice Benjamin Res. OB/GYN 1978 — maternal-fetal medicine specialist and pioneer in the field; performed Canada's first successful diabetic renal transplant and pregnancy
Maurice Dongier Residency Psychiatry 1954 — Canadian neuropsychiatrist at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre
David Leffell M.D., C.M. 1981 — internationally recognized dermatologic surgeon, founder and chief of the Dermatologic Surgery Program at Yale School of Medicine
Philip Seeman M.D., C.M. 1960 — Canadian schizophrenia researcher and neuropharmacologist, known for his research on dopamine receptors
Munroe Bourne M.D., C.M. 1940 — physician, Olympic medal-winning swimmer, Rhodes Scholar, Major in the Canadian Army
Andrew Schally Ph.D. 1957 — Nobel laureate in Physiology (1977)
Vincenzo Di Nicola BA, 1976; Res. Psychiatry 1986 — Italian-Canadian psychologist, psychiatrist and family therapist, and philosopher of mind
Maurice LeClair M.D., C.M. 1951 — Canadian physician, businessman, civil servant, and academic; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke
Mary Runnells Bird M.D., C.M. 1900 — Canadian surgeon, "one of Canada's first women doctors"
Stefanie Green M.D., C.M. 1993 — Canadian physician known for her contributions to the field of assisted dying
Hilal bin Ali Al Sabti Res. Cardiac Surgery 2005, MS 2006 — cardiothoracic surgeon, Minister of Health, Oman
Casey Albert Wood ophthalmologist and comparative zoologist. Casey Wood received his M.D.C.M. degree from Bishop's College. When Bishop's merged with McGill he, like several other professors there, received an Ad Eundem MD degree from McGill in 1906.
Current and past faculty members
Madhukar Pai — expert on global health and epidemiology, specifically tuberculosis
Nahum Sonenberg — Israeli-Canadian expert virologist, microbiologist, and biochemist, discoverer of mRNA 5' cap-binding protein
Alan Evans neuroscientist, prominent researcher, expert in brain mapping
David S Rosenblatt, M.D., C.M. 1970 — prominent medical geneticist, pediatrician; expert in the field of inborn errors of folate and vitamin B12 metabolism
Michael Meaney — researcher and expert in biological psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery
Brenda Milner Ph.D. 1952 — neuropsychologist, "founder of neuropsychology"
Terence Coderre — researcher, pain expert, Harold Griffith Chair in Anaesthesia Research
↑ 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. PMID19582946.
↑ 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]
↑ Hanaway, Joseph. "William Robertson (1784–1844)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
↑ Frost, Stanley Brice (1980). McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, Volume I, 1801–1895. McGill-Queen's University Press. p.[insert page number]. ISBN9780773510951.
↑ Hanaway, Joseph; Cruess, Richard L. (1996). McGill Medicine, Volume 1. McGill-Queen’s University Press. ISBN9780773513242.
↑ Hanaway, Joseph; Cruess, Richard L. (1996). McGill Medicine, Volume 1. McGill-Queen’s University Press. ISBN9780773513242.
↑ Frost, Stanley Brice (1980). McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, Volume I, 1801–1895. McGill-Queen’s University Press. p.[insert page number]. ISBN9780773510951.
↑ Stewart, Gregory R. (2024). "Reimagining Health Professions Education: McGill's Integrated Faculty Structure". Canadian Journal of Medical Education. 9 (2): 45–58.
↑ Avery, Donald H.; Eaton, Mark, eds. (2008). The Meaning of Life: The Scientific and Social Experiences of Everitt and Robert Murray, 1930–1964. The Publications of the Champlain Society. ISBN9781442620315.
Medical Library Archives Collection, Osler Library Archives, McGill University. Collection of primary sources documenting the growth of the Medical Library at McGill University. Also includes announcements, university calendars, and directories related to the Faculty of Medicine
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