McMaster medical students offered incentive to choose family medicine

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Altana-openhouse-005.jpg” caption=”John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma shakes hands with John Kelton, dean of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster. Kelton spoke at the launch and thanked Altana Pharma on behalf of all five medical schools in Ontario.”]McMaster medical students who want to pursue family medicine as their speciality were given a strong incentive to do so by ALTANA Pharma, which launched a $125,000 scholarship fund.

“This is excellent news,” says McMaster medical student Alicia Gallaccio, who hopes to enter family medicine next year. “This will provide so many opportunities for students who are interested in family medicine.”

The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship will give select medical students at McMaster and Ontario's four other medical schools $5,000 a year if they pursue family medicine as their speciality.

“The cost of a medical school education is an important issue for students, as tuition is high, particularly in Ontario,” said John Kelton, dean of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster. “These scholarships shall help encourage medical students to pursue a career in family medicine, and will mean a lot to the medical students who receive them.”

According to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, average tuition fees in Ontario for medical school have risen 407 per cent from 1993/94 to 2003/04. In real dollars, that is an increase from $2,838 a year to $14,389.

The family physician shortage problem in Ontario affects communities as large as Toronto as well as towns and rural areas across the province. According to The Ontario College of Family Physicians, the situation is only expected to get worse with 23 per cent of family doctors in Ontario expected to retire over the next five years; 22 per cent seriously thinking of leaving the profession; 16 per cent thinking of leaving the province; and, fewer family doctors coming into the system.

“I am quite surprised about the number of family physicians planning to leave the profession,” says Gallaccio. “I think scholarships such as the one introduced by Atlanta Pharma will certainly make a difference for students hoping to pursue family medicine, especially given the current high cost of medical school tuition.”

Many McMaster students promote family medicine, Gallaccio adds. “We are part of a Family Medicine Interest Group and do our best to increase awareness of the benefits of family medicine as a career, provide support to other students interested in the field and promote a positive perspective of family medicine,” she says. “There is definitely enthusiasm for family medicine among medical students in our program and I hope we will continue to see such enthusiasm rise.”

ALTANA Pharma Inc. is providing annual family medicine scholarships to students at McMaster, the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Queen's University and The University of Western Ontario. Each medical school receives $5,000 a year for the next five years for one annual scholarship.

“The scholarship program was designed to help address the severe shortage of family physicians in Ontario,” says John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma in Canada. “It allows us to do something at the supply source  medical schools.”

The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship was created as a result of a recent forum sponsored by ALTANA Pharma and the Ontario College of Family Physicians. Recognizing that family medicine is the cornerstone of the Ontario health-care system, the forum's report called for more encouragement of medical students to go into the field of family medicine. Thursday's announcement is partly a result of this forum.

“The shortage of doctors in family medicine is putting more stress on those practicing and gives medical students the impression that it is the toughest job in medicine to do,” says Suk. “We hope the announcement acts as an incentive for every qualified student to consider family medicine as their preferred area of practice.”