September

The move to a distributed model of medical education in BC presented significant challenges when determining how to train students in gross human anatomy and in histology. These challenges have been met with the help of technology that allows us to provide instruction simultaneously at the three University of British Col­umbia MD undergraduate program sites in Victoria, Prince George, and Vancouver.

While attention in recent years has focused on the expansion of the MD undergraduate pro­­gram at the University of British Columbia, similar expansion of postgraduate (res­i­dency) programs has been taking place. The less obvious postgraduate expansion has been closely coordinated with the undergraduate expansion, although the approach and schedule have been different.

The expansion of the MD undergraduate program, which first increas­ed admissions dramatically in 2004, necessitated a coordinated response at the postgraduate level for two main reasons. 

Expanding the medical school in British Columbia has provided us with an opport­unity to ask questions about what kind of doctors we should be trying to educate. As in the rest of Canada, BC suffers not only from a shortage of physicians, but also from poor distribution of the physicians it has. This is particularly so in rural areas, where shortages of primary care phy­sicians and specialists translate into significant problems for people living in those communities.[1] 

In August 2004, 200 students filed into a partially constructed Life Sciences Centre on the University of British Columbia Point Grey campus. Being involved in this in­augural distributed class, soon to be scattered to newly minted regional campuses, was both exciting and in­timidating for us.