University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Medicine
The Fitzgerald Building (foreground) and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research
Established	1843 (1843)
Type	Faculty (medical school)
Academic affiliation	University of Toronto
Location	Discovery District, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dean	L.Trevor Young
Website	www.facmed.utoronto.ca

The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Toronto. The faculty is based in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along with most of its teaching hospitals and research institutes. Founded in 1843, it is one of Canada's oldest institutions of medical studies, and is known for the discovery of insulin and stem cells. The school was ranked 6th in the world and 1st in Canada by the U.S. News and World Education Rankings for Clinical Medicine in 2016,^[1] and 13th in the world and 1st in Canada by the QS University Subject Rankings for Medicine in 2015.^[2]

History

Frederick Banting joined by Charles Best in office, 1924

The university originally opened its medical school in 1843, providing instruction in medicine and medical sciences. In 1853, it suspended the school's teaching program and transferred teaching duties to the city's three proprietary schools: Trinity Medical College, the Toronto School of Medicine and Woman's Medical College. Because proprietary schools could not grant degrees, the university's medical school retained the responsibility of holding examinations and conferring medical degrees. As the university kept raising its standards, the medical examinations became increasingly rigorous and scientific.^[3] This led to fewer medical students from proprietary schools deciding to obtain university degrees, which were not required for medical practice at the time.^[3]

Recruitment ad from 1906, showing course fees, subjects and other information.

In 1887, the university resumed medical teaching in its Faculty of Medicine. The faculty promptly absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine, which could no longer compete with the university as it faced heavy costs of scientific work and higher examination standards set by the faculty.^[3]

The Faculty, in partnership with University of Toronto Mississauga, Trillium Health Centre, and Credit Valley Hospital ^[4] opened the Mississauga Academy of Medicine in August 2011 with 54 first-year students. As of 2014, the Academy has a total of 216 students enrolled in the four-year program. The new facility is located across two floors inside the new Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex and provides brand new classrooms, seminar rooms, computer facilities, learning spaces and laboratories.^[5] Students are provided with fully equipped student lounge and outdoor terrace to relax and socialize. Students are able to share lectures and learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom through advanced technologies.^[5]

Curriculum

The Medical Sciences Building is the administrative centre of the Faculty of Medicine

The McMurrich Building contains offices of medical faculty members and researchers.

In 2016, the Faculty of Medicine will be implementing the new Foundations Curriculum, moving away from the traditional lecture based style of teaching based on anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology and into a problem based learning approach with early clinical exposure, similar to the approach first pioneered at McMaster University Medical School.^[6]

The Doctor of Medicine program at the University of Toronto has a total enrolment of about 850 students. In 2015, the average accepted undergraduate GPA was 3.96 (on the Ontario Medical Schools Application Service 4.0 scale) and the median score in the numerically graded sections of the MCAT was 11.^[7][8] The University of Toronto is one of only a few programs in Canada to accept international students through its regular admission process, and not only through contract with foreign governments. The faculty also offers the M.D./PhD degree jointly with University of Toronto doctoral programs, in addition to other degrees of master of science, master of public health, master of health science, doctor of philosophy, and post-doctoral fellowships.

The program for the Doctor of Medicine degree spans four years. The first two years are known as the preclerkship curriculum, during which M.D. candidates acquire the basic biomedical and human anatomy knowledge. The principles of medical ethics, professionalism and medical jurisprudence are also taught in preclerkship.

The final two years form the clerkship curriculum that takes place in hospitals and ambulatory clinics. The core clerkship rotations cover the essential medical specialties: surgery and internal medicine, psychiatry, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, ambulatory experience, neurology, emergency medicine, anesthesia, ophthalmology, otolaryngology and dermatology. Additional rotations are devoted to elective clerkships that provide training in subdisciplines within the major specialties.

Hospitals and research

The Faculty of Medicine operates a health network that comprises twelve teaching hospitals with significant emphasis on tertiary care, including medical treatment, research and advisory services to patients and clients from Canada and abroad.^[9] A core member of the network is the University Health Network, which itself consists of three specialized hospitals: Toronto General Hospital for cardiology and organ transplants; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre for oncology as the home of the Ontario Cancer Institute; and Toronto Western Hospital for neuroscience and musculoskeletal health.^[10] In total, medical students at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine have access to approximately 20 Toronto hospitals during their medical education. (See also, Biodiscovery Toronto)

The Hospital for Sick Children is the pediatric medical centre specializing in treatments for childhood diseases and injuries.^[11] The other full affiliates of the Faculty of Medicine are Bloorview Kids Rehab, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, St. Michael's Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Women's College Hospital. Physicians in the medical institutes have cross-appointments to faculty and supervisory positions in the Faculty of Medicine and other university departments. Core rotations may also involve community hospitals, which include North York General Hospital, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto East General Hospital, The Scarborough Hospital, Credit Valley Hospital and Markham Stouffville Hospital.

In 2005, the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research opened a new research facility consisted of approximately 20,550 gross square metres [gsm] / 221,120 square feet laboratory and teaching facilities on 10 open concept floors. Located on the U of T campus at 160 College St. W., it was designed and constructed between 2001 and 2005 by the German firm Behnisch Architekten and architectsAlliance of Toronto with their main goal focusing on collaborative ethics and sustainable design. The site is a rectangular elongating from south to north and it is surrounded by historical buildings from its south east and west. The site was formerly used as parking lot, service area and pathway to the medical building. The facility houses about 400 diverse research specialists, including molecular and developmental biologists, geneticists, computer scientists, chemists and bioengineers. It cost approximately $105 million, a large portion of the which were donated by philanthropist and lawyer, Terrence Donnelly. Other funding sources include the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Government of Ontario, Ontario Innovation Trust, University Infrastructure Investment Fund I’Anson Fund and private donations from University of Toronto alumni.

The Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Bimolecular Research facility received the 2006 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Award and the 2006 Ontario Association of Architects Award of Excellence. Despite the supposed focus on sustainability, and the claims of energy performance, the building consumes about 650 kWh/m2/yr (twice the average modern office building).^[12]

The CCBR rises above the neighboring buildings where aluminum and glass work together to create a glass tower which is standing on a concrete ground plane. The building is mainly a research facility with no lecture rooms. It is divided into two programmatic spaces. First is the public space located in the ground plane, and the second is the research facility. Three winter gardens are places in different levels across the building giving the researchers fresh air and nice space to work in. Unlike usual structure, each façade of the CCBR tells a different story. The south façade is a high performance curtain wall with double glazing separated by 800mm. This façade integrates a high-tech louver system, which together with the glazings, work to maximize daylight, minimize heat gain/ loss, control glare, maximize natural ventilation and control wind. As noted above, the building uses a very high amount of energy despite any design intentions to the contrary. On the east façade colorful glazing are taking place in a sequence of the DNA bar code. Also, in the west façade when looked from distance the patterned ceramic glass represents the double stranded helix of the DNA molecule. Finally, with the use of social spaces, technology and sustainability the CCBR raises the standards of laboratories environment worldwide.^[13]

MaRS Discovery District is an affiliated corporation that was established to help commercialize the faculty's life science and medical research through partnerships with private enterprises.

A laboratory at The Centre for Applied Genomics of the Hospital for Sick Children

Interior of the MaRS Discovery District research park facility

Notable faculty and alumni

• Theodore Drake, class of 1914: Pediatrician and inventor of the baby food Pablum
• Norman Bethune, class of 1916: Physician, humanitarian and medical innovator
• Frederick Banting, class of 1916 and Charles Best, class of 1925: Co-discoverers of insulin with professor of physiology John James Richard Macleod
• Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, class of 1938: Developed the artificial pacemaker and the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery
• Robert Gordon Bell, class of 1943: Pioneered treatment of alcohol addiction in Canada and invented the alco-dial, a device to estimate blood alcohol levels.
• Henry J. M. Barnett, class of 1944: Pioneered use of aspirin as a preventive therapy for heart attack and stroke
• Robert B. Salter, class of 1947: Developed the continuous passive motion (CPM) treatment to aid recovery of joints after trauma
• Ernest McCulloch, class of 1948: Cellular biologist and Lasker Award recipient credited with the discovery of the stem cell
• Shaf Keshavjee, class of 1985: Transplant surgeon and ex-vivo lung transplant pioneer
• John C. Boileau Grant, professor of anatomy, 1930–56, Author of Grant's Atlas of Anatomy and Grant's Dissector
• William Boyd, professor of pathology, 1937-1951, Author of Surgical Pathology, Pathology of Internal Disease, Textbook of Pathology and Introduction to Medical Science
• James Till, professor of medical biophysics, 1958–97: Academic on Internet research ethics
• Tak Wah Mak, professor of medical biophysics, 1975–: Discovered the T-cell receptor
• Tirone E. David, professor of surgery, 1980–: Developed valve-sparing aortic root replacement
• Lap-Chee Tsui, professor of molecular and medical genetics, 1983–2002: Former president of the Human Genome Organisation, vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong
• Anthony Pawson, professor of molecular and medical genetics, 1985–: Researcher in signal transduction
• John E. Dick, professor of molecular genetics: Identified the cancer stem cell
• C. Miller Fisher, described lacunar strokes and identified transient ischemic attacks as stroke precursors.
• Brenda Andrews, professor at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and researcher

See also

• The Centre for Applied Genomics
• University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
• IBBME
• SciNet Consortium

References

Further reading

• Michael Bliss. The Discovery of Insulin. University of Chicago Press, 1982.
• Michael Bliss. Banting: A Biography. University of Toronto Press, 1992.
• Marianne Fedunkiw. Rockefeller Foundation Funding and Medical Education in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007.
• Ernest McCulloch. The Ontario Cancer Institute: Successes and Reverses at Sherbourne Street. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.

External links

• University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine – Official website
• University of Toronto Medical Society – Medical Student Society (MedSoc)
• Archival papers of Gordon A. Bates, student of the faculty and representative of the University of Toronto Medical Society (ca 1907), held at University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services
• Archival papers of Bernhard Cinader, who established of the Department of Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine, are held at University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services
• Archival papers of James Arnold Dauphinee, Head of the Department of Pathological Chemistry in 1947, are held at University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
• Archival papers of Donald Thomas Fraser, Professor at the Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine (1920-1954), and Frieda Helen Fraser, Professor at the Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine (1928-1965), are held at University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
• Archival papers of Thomas P. Morley, Professor (1953-1985), are held at University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services

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Coordinates: 43°39′39″N 79°23′37″W / 43.660770°N 79.393658°W / 43.660770; -79.393658