McMaster's medical school is leading the revolution to build a better doctor.

This is the thrust of the May 13 edition of Maclean's magazine, which devotes six pages to its cover story Building a Better Doctor and features a cover photo of second-year medical student Menaka Pai.

Writer and columnist Rob Sheppard spent close to one month researching Canada's 16 medical schools to determine what makes a better doctor and how medical schools are going about building that doctor.

Sheppard's article begins, “Thirty-three years ago, upstart McMaster University in Hamilton sparked a revolution in training of doctors that eventually spread to all the big medical schools in North America. Now it wants to start another. Its plan is bold, courageous and designed to combat some of the ills of today's health-care system. “

Sheppard discusses the medical school's first revolutionary innovation–the problem-based learning (PBL) approach–then focuses on McMaster's new vision for the future of medical training.

This revolutionary new plan, described by John Kelton, vice-president and dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, as a “marketplace model” is one that matches training more closely to the real needs of communities and ordinary doctoring.

Sheppard writes, “Change comes when an institution with a flair for innovation, like McMaster, pops its head up above the crowd.”

(End of story)