[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/ALTANA_039.jpg” caption=”Cheryl Levitt, chair of the Department of Family Medicine and president, Ontario College of Family Physicians, right, and Jon Miklea, undergraduate director, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, left, accept the award on behalf of Catherine d’Anjou from Alan Davis, vice-president scientific affairs, ALTANA Pharma.”]Catherine d'Anjou, a recent graduate from the McMaster University medical school, was named the University's first recipient of the ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship – a fund that each year gives medical students across the province a $5,000 scholarship if they pursue family medicine as their specialty.

d'Anjou and her fellow recipients from the University of Toronto, The University of Western Ontario, Queen's University and the University of Ottawa were honoured last Thursday night at a reception in Toronto at the 43rd Annual Scientific Assembly of the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP).

“Family medicine provides an important service to communities, but medical students are sometimes hesitant to pursue this route,” says d'Anjou. “This scholarship fund provides an extra incentive for students to advance in this rewarding career.”

The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship was the result of a forum sponsored by ALTANA and the Ontario College of Family Physicians which addressed the shortage of family physicians in the province. As part of the solution, the forum's report called for more encouragement of medical students to go into the field of family medicine.

“It's encouraging to see this program is working as an incentive for medical students to pursue a career in family medicine,” says John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma in Canada. “We hope this scholarship fund also helps students to defray some of the costs associated with their medical school education.”

d'Anjou received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Women's Studies from the University of King's College and earned her medical doctorate from McMaster University. She is currently a medical resident in Fredericton, New Brunswick, as part of Dalhousie University's family medicine program. d'Anjou has a passion for social justice and worked for several years as a social worker in a women's shelter. She is interested in making a difference at a personal level and hopes to practice family medicine in a community health centre.

“We thank ALTANA most sincerely for their efforts to support family medicine in this province,” says Jan Kasperski, executive director and chief executive officer of the Ontario College of Family Physicians. “Family physicians are the cornerstone of our Canadian health-care system. Encouraging students to pursue family medicine at this period of great shortages is critical, otherwise the system will crumble.”

ALTANA Pharma adds value by improving the health of Canadians through people, innovative products and Canadian-based research in respirology and gastroenterology. Designated as A Caring Company by Imagine Canada, ALTANA Pharma was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Maclean's. Visit www.altanapharma.ca. ALTANA Pharma Inc. is the Canadian pharmaceutical division of ALTANA AG (Germany).

The Ontario College of Family Physicians is a provincial chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and is a voluntary, not-for-profit association that promotes family medicine in Ontario through leadership, education and advocacy. The OCFP represents more than 7,200 family physicians providing care for remote, rural, suburban, urban and inner-city populations in Ontario. The OCFP is the voice of family medicine in Ontario. At the heart of the organization is the building and maintenance of high standards of practice and the continuous improvement of access to quality family practice services for all residents of Ontario.