From symposiums on the continuing development of problem-based learning and the latest in health research to campus tours and a gala party, the program is set to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

The three days of activities will highlight the five decades since the first medical school class began in the fall of 1969.

To launch the series of events, Faculty of Health Sciences faculty and staff are invited to a reception on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the atrium of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery to celebrate the years of medical excellence.

Paul O’Byrne, dean of the medical school and dean and vice-president of the Faculty, is hosting an evening cocktail reception for medical school faculty and alumni on Thursday, Oct. 24 at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre in downtown Hamilton.

The 7 to 10 p.m. event includes an 8 p.m. screening of the award-winning documentary The Gender Lady: The Fabulous Dr. May Cohen.

Dr. May Cohen, who joined the family medicine faculty at McMaster in 1977, is an educator, researcher and physician who raised awareness of gender and equity issues in medicine. She is a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and she is expected to attend the showing.

The hour-long film won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Toronto Jewish Film Festival, and is a finalist of the 2019 Canadian Cinematography Awards. It was co-produced and co-directed by Cheryl Levitt, professor emerita and former chair of family medicine at McMaster, and Dr. Barbara Lent of Western University. There will be a question and answer session after the showing.

The film will be also shown at the Westdale Theatre, 1014 King Street West, on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $12. More information is at: https://www.picatic.com/thegenderlady.

The focus is on medical education during the morning of Friday, Oct. 25 at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre, with presentations starting at 8:30 a.m. Speakers include McMaster faculty members Amanda Bell, Margo Mountjoy, Alan Neville, Geoff Norman, Parveen Wasi, Allyn Walsh and Rob Whyte as well as Henk Schmidt of Erasmus University, the Netherlands and Kevin Eva of the University of British Columbia. Tickets to the education session cost $25 per person.

Guests may travel to McMaster’s central campus for tours of facilities in the afternoons on both Friday and Saturday.

The focus turns to medical research for the morning of Saturday, Oct. 26 at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre. A large roster of renowned McMaster researchers will talk about their work and impact, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The speakers include faculty members Sonia Anand, John Bienenstock, Dawn Bowdish, Jonathan Bramson, Judah Denburg, Gordon Guyatt, Kristin Hope, John Kelton, James MacKillop, Andrew McArthur, Katherine Morrison, Paul O’Byrne, Sheila Singh, Elena Verdú and Salim Yusuf. Tickets to the research session cost $25 per person.

The weekend concludes Saturday evening with the anniversary gala dinner at Liuna Station. The keynote speaker is Dr. Tim Evans, MD’92 and son of John Evans, founding dean of the McMaster medical school. Evans, who was the senior director of Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank Group, recently joined McGill University as the inaugural director and associate dean of the School of Population and Global Health in its Faculty of Medicine.

The gala will start at 7 p.m. Tickets for the gala are $200 per person or $2,000 for a table of 10.

Tickets are still available for the anniversary events. The full program for the weekend and registration can be found at https://macmed50.mcmaster.ca/.