[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Kelton_John2.jpg” caption=”Dr. John Kelton Photo credit: John Bugailiskis”]In the past five years, McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences has undergone tremendous growth in its dual mandates of education and research.

Since 2001, student enrolment has doubled, and research funding is up 24 per cent to $98-million a year.

The new Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery was completed and opened, and is home to the midwifery and Bachelor of Health Sciences programs and the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. It also houses the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Health and the newly established McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Biology Institute. Two new laboratories, the Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector Laboratory and the Farncombe Family Gnotobiotic Facility, are the only such specialty labs at Canadian universities.

The clinical learning centre opened in 2002, and an adjacent practical skills centre for the teaching of nurses, physicians, occupational therapists and physiotherapists and other health professionals will soon be under construction. As well, $7-million in renovations to the health sciences library are expected to finish this fall.

The Faculty has added more than 35 endowed professorial chairs. In addition to the $105-million from philanthropist Michael G. DeGroote, almost $10-million has been raised for other capital projects. During the same time, bursaries for students have increased 150 per cent.

Now John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences since 2001, has been reappointed to the position for another five-year term through June 2011. He also maintains his role as dean of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

“It's been exciting, the faculty and staff have been like surfers on a huge wave of opportunity,” said Kelton. “But the surf is still up. As Canada's premier health sciences University, we know we're positioned to provide training of Canada's best health care professionals, make great advances in health care innovations and research and provide optimum health care.

“I've also been pleased that in the last few years we have renewed our affiliation agreements with our academic partner hospitals Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph's Healthcare and St. Peters. Particularly, we now have common agreements on intellectual property, the creation of research institutes and the use of federal indirect research funds.”

He noted the School of Nursing's strong consortium with Conestoga College in Kitchener and Mohawk College to provide the Bachelor of Science, Nursing degree made McMaster the first Ontario University to offer a completely integrated program, thus ensuring all nursing students receive the same high-quality education.

The medical school has increased its first-year class from 100 to 148, and is now readying for an expansion to 176 beginning medical students a year, with new campuses in Kitchener in 2007 and St. Catharines in 2008. A key component in the medical school expansion will be the use of new technologies for education.

“The University's Collaborations for Health initiative will help co-ordinate the synergy that can be developed in involving all the Faculties in health-centred research,” Kelton said.

Kelton is an internationally renowned physician scientist, an active professor and a practising doctor.

A native of Windsor, Kelton earned his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario. He received his specialty and research training in internal medicine and hematology at Duke University in North Carolina and at McMaster. He came to McMaster in 1977.

His research focus over the past 30 years has been the study of platelet and bleeding disorders. His basic studies have been complemented by clinical trials that have changed the management of many patients around the world, most notably pregnant women with platelet disorders.

Kelton has earned many national and international awards, including the Gold Medal from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Bernard L. Schwartz Award from the Scripps Research Institute. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and was the first North American physician to receive Germany's prestigious Karl Landsteiner award from the German Society of Transfusion Medicine. He also holds a Canada Research Chair in transfusion medicine.