Health e-News

Message from Dean Eidelman – Update on undergraduate medical education accreditation – December 2016

I remain pleased with the implementation of our Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) accreditation plan. Our program is much stronger today, thanks to the many groups and individuals involved at all levels, including our students.
In February 2017, CACMS and LCME* will visit the Faculty to conduct a “limited site survey.” Their job will be to assess our status to date compared to their last visit in 2015. Our ultimate goal is to exceed accreditation standards over time and to continue to excel, which I have no doubt we will do. Our new MDCM curriculum is also resolving certain deficiencies identified by the accreditors, which is excellent news.
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Re-appointment of Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine

We are pleased to announce the re-appointment of Dr. David Eidelman as Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Eidelman’s second five-year term begins on July 1, 2017. McGill’s Board of Governors approved the appointment during the closed session of its meeting on Thursday, December 1, 2016. Following a review of Dr. Eidelman’s performance and contributions during his first term, the Advisory Committee for the Possible Reappointment of the Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine unanimously approved his second term. Congratulations Dr. Eidelman!
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Prof. Mark Lathrop re-appointed Scientific Director, McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre

It is with pleasure that we announce the re-appointment of Mark Lathrop, PhD, to the position of Scientific Director, McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, a position he has held since 2011, during which time he has helped strengthen our position as a hub for genomic research in Quebec and a leader nationally and internationally.
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McGill Family Care hub

The Sub-committee on Family Care has gathered information over the last year to create a resource for all members of the McGill community with family and caregiving responsibilities. We recognize that working, teaching or studying while balancing family life is a very difficult thing to do.
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McGill tops Maclean’s ranking for 12th straight year

It’s now an even dozen. For the 12th year in a row, Maclean’s magazine has ranked McGill as the top university in Canada among institutions with medical schools and a broad range of PhD programs. McGill once again ranked first in the “medical-doctoral” category in scholarships and bursaries for students, as well as in social sciences and humanities grants relative to faculty size.
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Highlights from the October 6, 2016, Board of Governors meeting

Message from the Principal

Here are the important discussions, decisions and developments from the first meeting of 2016-17, held last Thursday, October 6.
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News from McGill University’s Department of Medicine

The following is an excerpt of the editorial written by, Dr. James Martin, Chair, Department of Medicine from the latest edition of Vital Signs, the Newsletter of the Department of Medicine, available now.
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McGill University announces a transformative $20 million donation to the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, was present today at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI) for the announcement of an important donation of $20 million by the Larry and Judy Tanenbaum family. This transformative gift will help to establish the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute, a bold initiative that will facilitate the sharing of neuroscience findings worldwide to accelerate the discovery of leading edge therapeutics to treat patients suffering from neurological diseases.
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Launch of McGill Global Health & Rehabilitation initiative

The McGill School of Physical and Occupational Therapy (SPOT) has a long history of involvement in issues pertaining to rehabilitation and disability in the global context and continues that with the recently announced Global Health and Rehabilitation Initiative (GHRI). The launch of the GHRI took place alongside the 7th annual Edith Aston-McCrimmon lecture on November 24.
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Steve Arless, one of Canada’s leading medical device entrepreneurs joins McGill’s Department of Surgery

Prominent McGill alumnus Steve Arless, BSc’71 (Chemistry), returned to his alma mater this fall as Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Medicine as part of the Department of Surgery’s new, cutting-edge, Surgical Innovation Program.
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Significant advance in understanding the disparity in prognosis between men and women in melanoma

Though it has been shown that men who get melanoma are twice as likely to die from the disease as women, the biological explanation for this is poorly understood. Research led by Dr. Alan Spatz, Director of Surgical and Molecular Pathology at the Jewish General Hospital and head of the ”X chromosome and cancer” lab at the Lady Davis Institute, reveals that the decreased expression of the X chromosome gene PPP2R3B and its protein PR70 are positively linked to tumor progression in this aggressive form of skin cancer. The finding is published in Science Translational Medicine.
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Study to explore e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tool

Despite their best efforts, only 10 to 20 per cent of smokers successfully quit long-term. A new clinical trial seeks to determine whether electronic cigarettes can improve those odds.
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New marker identified for pancreatic cancer

While it was known that Regenerating (Reg) proteins – a group of proteins that are involved in the proliferation and differentiation of diverse cell types and are important in protecting cells from death caused by damage or inflammation – were involved in the pancreatic islet regeneration in diabetes patients, until now, there had been no systematic study on the role they play in pancreatic cancer. Now, a recent study led by researchers at McGill University, for the first time, explored this idea, and the results were published recently in the journal Oncotarget.
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Christine McCusker wins Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Award

Dr. Christine McCusker, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, McGill University and Director, Division of Allergy & Immunology, Montreal Children’s Hospital was recently honoured as the inaugural recipient of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology’s (CSACI) F. Estelle R. Simons Award for Research. Congratulations Dr. McCusker!
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Celebrating Faculty of Medicine award winners

On November 24, 2016, the McGill University Faculty of Medicine celebrated the 2016 winners of the Maude Abbott, Haile T. Debas and Rosemary Wedderburn Brown Prizes during an evening event held in Holmes Hall. Congratulations to the three laureates!
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McGill medical students design and sell calendars

Eloise Passarella, a first-year medical student at McGill was trying to come up with an idea that would combine her two passions of medicine and dance. The result is a calendar featuring medical students representing various styles of dance in medical-related environments. All profits from sales of the calendar will be donated to the National Centre for Dance Therapy of les Grands Ballets Canadiens
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