A message from Roger Wong, Vice Dean, Education and Robert McMaster, Vice Dean, Research, Faculty of Medicine.
We are pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Dean Jones as Associate Dean, Fraser for a five-year term effective to September 30, 2027.
During his first term, Dr. Jones supported the successful implementation of medical and health professions distribution to the Fraser region, including the MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP) Fraser Medical Cohort and the Master of Physical Therapy (MPT). He also has, and will continue to, play a key role in developing UBC’s academic integrated health vision in the Fraser region and Fraser Health.
In addition, Dr. Jones will continue to provide strategic leadership to ensure a high-quality educational and inclusive experience for all learners and trainees in the Fraser region. He will work closely with Associate and Assistant Deans, Department Heads and School Directors and other senior leaders to ensure regional academic activities and research initiatives align with the strategic priorities and plans of the Faculty and UBC. We look forward to our continued work with Dr. Jones and as he enters a second term in this role.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Jones on his reappointment.
Thrive is a time when we come together as a UBC community to learn about, talk about, and explore ways to support our mental health. The last few years have brought unprecedented challenges and complexities that have impacted the mental health of our community, and now more than ever, it is important that we support one another in learning to thrive.
You can play a role during Thrive by hosting an in-person or virtual event or activity supporting mental health literacy during the month of November. An event can be an existing program that you already host or one designed specifically for Thrive.
Up to $300 in funding is available for UBC Vancouver students, faculty or staff who would like to host an event in November. Applications are open until October 24, 2022.
The FoM internal deadline to submit Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (RCPSC) applications for Academic Certification is Monday, September 12th. Please share the entire package electronically via OneDrive with Aneri Dalal. Please do not send them directly to the Dean. For more information on the Academic Certification process including the Academic Certification Application, Policy on Academic Certification and a guide on how to prepare a strong letter of support, please visit MedNet. Please note: The Royal College will be accepting electronic applications (i.e. hard copy originals are not required), and credit card payments. Please contact Irish Krolikowski if you have any questions.
Associate Membership Reappointment
Please be reminded that the 2022 Associate Membership Reappointment deadline is Tuesday,September 20, 2022. Please contact Aneri Dalal if you have any questions.
Postdoc Workshop for Administrators
Faculty Relations is facilitating a workshop for administrators on Wednesday, September 28th, from 1:30 -3:30 pm. Anyone who handles postdoctoral fellow appointments should attend this workshop. This workshop will cover the basics for unit administrators to better understand Postdoctoral Fellow appointments at UBC. The presentation will be held via Zoom, and a link will be provided to registrants the day before the workshop, along with a copy of the presentation. The session will not be recorded. If interested, please register at https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5tYha72SiQWRIeG. The Zoom link for this session will only be provided to those who have registered, and it is requested that the Zoom link is not shared with others. Please forward this email to those who might benefit from this session.
Call out for Mentors: FoM Staff Mentorship Program
As announced recently, if you are interested in being a mentor, please submit a mentor applicationhere by September 30, 2022 end of day.
Candidate Submissions: For reappointment, promotion and tenure reviews in 2022-2023, July 1, 2022 was the deadline to submit their finalized CV, teaching evidence, and list of potential referee names as per the Collective Agreement. Please forward their casefile to our office as soon as possible in order to ensure that the faculty members’ reviews stay on track for completion by July 1, 2023. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Jane or Alyssa if you have any questions about your files.
2022-23 FARPT Meeting Schedule – The Faculty Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee meeting schedule has been set for the coming year. Please take note of these dates to ensure Department Heads and School Directors are available to present their cases. Heads and Departments are encouraged to have their reports and recommendations to the Dean by the end of November to allow for the Dean’s Advisory Committee to meet and review the promotion and tenure files in time to receive a decision made by the President ahead of the July 1, 2023 promotion date.
2022 Faculty Salary Increase – End of Process
Please refer to the attached email regarding important updates and actions required for the salary increase this year. The Faculty Salary Increase Notices (FSIN) have been shared with each Department/School via the OneDrive FSIN folder. If you have any questions, please reach out to Alyssa, Jane, or Susan.
Minimum salary for benefits for Postdoctoral Research & Clinical Fellows
The minimum monthly salary for the purpose of benefits eligibility has been updated for Postdoctoral Research Fellows and Clinical Fellows. The new minimum monthly salary is now $1,400. The other benefit eligibility requirements (i.e., an appointment of at least 0.5 FTE for one year or more) remain unchanged. Please see the following link for details: https://hr.ubc.ca/working-ubc/salaries/faculty-salaries/minimum-salaries-purpose-benefits-eligibility
Lengthening Immigration Processing Times for Work Permit Applications
Please see the below communication for guidance and information on managing the challenges surrounding longer processing times.
Housing Immigration & Relocation Services (HIRS) have identified a significant increase in processing times for work permit applications made abroad or inside Canada. Please see this communication attached here for guidance and info on how to manage the challenges surrounding longer processing times.
Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) offers faculty and staff at UBC Vancouver an opportunity to explore, develop and test new ideas on sustainability and climate action on campus. The 2022/23 CLL Fund Competition provides up to $50,000 in funding for teams to develop ‘living lab’ projects.
The deadline to submit proposals is November 7, 2022.
The UBC Collaborative Research Mobility Awards (CRMA) competition is now open. It provides up to $5,000 to support new or existing research partnerships between UBC researchers in the Okanagan and Vancouver.
Faculty members from all disciplines are invited to apply by November 4, 2022. Funding may be used to cover travel and accommodation costs associated with meetings, accessing specialized equipment, or other partnership activities.
Meet Rouhollah (Rola) Mousavizadeh, Research Associate in the Department of Physical Therapy.
Title:
Research Associate
Department/Unit:
Department of Physical Therapy
Campus:
UBC Vancouver
How long have you worked at the UBC Faculty of Medicine?
Almost 10 years.
Tell us what you do at the Faculty in one or two sentences:
As a researcher in Dr. Alex Scott’s laboratory, I study the pathology of tendons to develop novel modalities for management and therapy of tendon injuries.
What’s your favourite thing about your work?
The journey of research. It comes with lots of failed experiments which test your resilience and teach you to learn from different angles. And when the success comes, you feel absolute joy.
What song did you sing out loud to as a teenager?
I love Persian traditional music and poetry. Specially a poem by Rumi and vocals by Shajarian. It’s translated to:
I have come hidden from eyes like mind and soul
To take flame (bright) to my eyes and soul
They have filled my sight, where can I see but them
They have taken the city of my heart, where else can I go?
In the desiring of them, I have been turned like desire
Because I cannot name them, I say the name of the moon
What makes you laugh?
Watching my son when he hysterically laughs at something silly.
Where is your favourite vacation spot, and why?
Visiting my wife’s family in Bellingen, Australia.
A message from Dermot Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-President, Health.
I am delighted to announce the recipients of the 2022 Faculty of Medicine awards.
These awards recognize and celebrate the extraordinary contributions of faculty and staff who embody our values of respect, integrity, compassion, collaboration and equity — helping us to transform health for everyone.
The 2022 award categories include:
Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award
Awards for Excellence in Mentoring Early Career Faculty
Please join me in congratulating all of our 2022 award recipients. I look forward to formally celebrating the recipients and their accomplishments at our Annual Awards Reception later this month.
This message was sent to all faculty and staff in the Faculty of Medicine.
Specializing in complex spinal degenerative diseases and in the field of Epilepsy Surgery, Dr. Thompson was a Professor and Head Emeritus in Division of Neurosurgery, joining UBC in 1960.
Dr. Thompson served as the Head of the neurosurgical staff at UBC and Vancouver General Hospital for 24 years. During his tenure he established the first neurosurgical training program at UBC, and enlarged the Division’s expertise in functional, spinal, tumour and neurovascular subspecialties.
He is warmly remembered as a generous and caring leader who showed everyone respect and support.
UBC distributed medical education and medical residency training expansion
What is happening?
The Government of BC announced the expansion of UBC’s MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP) by 40 seats, and postgraduate medical residency training programs (PGME) by up to 88 seats, which will be phased in across the province beginning in 2023.
In the coming weeks, there will be a process to seek input and advice on how to maximize increased supports for physician preceptors and program delivery teams to ensure sustained quality of medical education overall. This will include engagement with the MDUP and its distributed sites, PGME residency programs and UBC departments.
Further, there are a number of UBC activities that will happen in parallel, which include engagement with our faculty leadership and community, partners and key stakeholders, and Faculty and university governance approval processes.
Where and when will the new seats be added?
The 40 new seats in the MDUP will be phased in beginning in 2023 and regionally distributed across the province as proposed:
Vancouver-Fraser Medical Program by 16 (from 192 seats to 208);
Northern Medical Program by 8 (from 32 seats to 40);
Southern Medical Program by 8 (from 32 seats to 40); and
Island Medical Program by 8 (from 32 seats to 40).
UBC’s PGME programs will be expanded by up to 88 new positions, including:
Initially, the UBC Family Medicine Residency program will be expanded over the next two years, bringing the program total from 174 seats to up to 204 seats. These positions will be regionally distributed across UBC’s family medicine residency training locations throughout the province.
A further increase in residency seats, which mirrors the MDUP expansion, will be phased in to add another 48 postgraduate medical education positions for family medicine and other specialties, with a particular focus on the unique health care needs of communities across the province.
Why are we doing this?
A key commitment of the UBC Faculty of Medicine lies within our contract with society, which is placing patients at the centre of everything we do. This means, in part, ensuring greater equity and access to medical education and training in order to better serve the province as a whole. This expansion will create greater access and opportunities for students and resident doctors to learn, train and stay on to practice in communities around BC.
The Faculty is committed to working with the government in supporting the health and human resource requirements needed to improve the health and wellbeing of families and communities across the province. By graduating more doctors, the Faculty will help meet the health care needs of British Columbians today and well into the future.
This is another important step in our vision to transform health for everyone.
When will we know more?
Details on start-up and sustained funding for the expansion are still forthcoming from the BC government.
In the coming weeks, there will be a process to seek input and advice on how to maximize increased supports for physician preceptors and program delivery teams to ensure sustained quality of medical education overall. This will include engagement with the MDUP and its distributed sites, PGME residency programs and UBC departments.
Further, there are a number of UBC activities that will happen in parallel, which include engagement with our faculty leadership and community, partners and key stakeholders, and Faculty and university governance approval processes.
Pending UBC processes, we are working towards a phased-in expansion beginning in 2023.
UBC processes would include things like engagement with our faculty leadership and community, partners and key stakeholders, and Faculty and university governance approval processes.
How are we able to expand so quickly?
The Faculty of Medicine (the Faculty) has a well-established province-wide, distributed medical education program that was designed for future expansion that can be done in a timely and effective manner while maintaining the excellent quality in education and training. Leveraging this provincial distributed medical education network — and our commitment to regional needs — the proposed new seats will be distributed across the province with a particular focus on the unique health care needs of the population.
None of this is possible without the thousands of outstanding UBC clinical faculty who play a key role every day in training the next generation of doctors while simultaneously delivering exceptional clinical care for their patients. Their efforts are supported by the dedicated program delivery teams that make this all possible.
This includes the partnership and collaboration with the University of Victoria and the University of Northern BC, and all the health authorities in BC.
Many clinical faculty and program delivery teams are already stretched. What additional supports and resources will be available?
The Faculty recognizes how hard everyone is working and the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had.
We have heard you and are listening. The Faculty has advocated strongly to government that a key enabler of expansion is our ability to secure additional resources to increase the supports for physician preceptors and program delivery teams to ensure sustained quality of medical education overall. Details on start-up and sustained support for the expansion are still forthcoming from government.
In the coming weeks, there will be a process to seek input and advice on how to maximize increased supports for physician preceptors and program delivery teams to ensure sustained quality of medical education overall. This will include engagement with the MDUP and its distributed sites, PGME residency programs and UBC departments.
I am a medical student/resident doctor. How does this affect me?
The Faculty will continue to deliver excellent educational and training programs for our medical students and resident doctors.
In fact, this expansion will create greater access and opportunities for medical students and resident doctors to learn, train and stay on to practice in communities around BC. This will in turn help meet the health care needs of families and communities across the province today and well into the future.
How would a new medical school in BC affect expansion?
We anticipate that once the business case is completed and further details are known, we will have a better understanding how the new medical school will add to the Government of BC’s broader strategy towards increasing the supply of new doctors, which is our collective goal.
I have questions regarding this expansion. Who do I contact?
UBC faculty members or physician preceptors: Please contact your UBC Department Head.
Medical students in the MDUP: Please contact your Regional Associate Dean.
Resident doctors in the PGME programs: Please contact your Program Director.
Staff members of the program delivery teams: Please contact your supervisor.
A message from Dermot Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-President, Health, UBC.
I’m writing to provide an update on an announcement made today by the Government of BC committing to the expansion of the UBC MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP) by 40 seats and the UBC Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) residency programs by up to 88 seats in a phased approach beginning in 2023.
This investment means more students and resident doctors will benefit by having greater access and opportunities to medical education and training throughout the Faculty’s province-wide distributed sites in the North, the Interior, on Vancouver Island, in the Fraser and Vancouver — which are delivered in partnership with the University of Victoria, the University of Northern BC and all health authorities in BC.
Further, at this important time in provincial health care, this investment will mean graduating more doctors for BC, benefiting patients, families and communities. Ultimately, this speaks to the essence of our contract with society — placing the patient and the public at the centre of everything we do.
None of this is possible without the thousands of outstanding and dedicated physician preceptors who play a key role every day in training the next generation of doctors, while simultaneously delivering exceptional clinical care for their patients.
I recognize that for all of us, this announcement comes at a challenging time when physician preceptors and program delivery teams are already stretched. This is why the Faculty advocated strongly to government and we are grateful to them as increased supports have been committed as part of this expansion.
In the coming weeks, there will be a process to seek input and advice on how to maximize increased supports for physician preceptors and program delivery teams to ensure sustained quality of medical education overall. This will include engagement with the MDUP and its distributed sites, PGME residency programs and UBC departments. Further, there are a number of UBC activities that will happen in parallel, which include engagement with our faculty leadership and community, partners and key stakeholders, and Faculty and university governance approval processes.
This message was sent to the Dean’s Executive Team, Department Heads, School Directors, Regional Associate, Associate and Assistant Deans, Centre/Institute Directors, Administrative Service Unit Directors and Senior Administrators.
