Chair's Message: Reflecting on Four Years of Passion and Purpose
As we have moved quickly into 2026 and look at the year ahead, I've had the opportunity to step back and reflect on the remarkable journey our Department has undertaken over the past four years. With 1-year left in my term as Department Chair, a routine task is to complete a Departmental self-study. This is a comprehensive document reporting on all aspects of the Department, including successes, challenges, and future directions. Completing the self-study has been an illuminating process, not because it revealed anything surprising, but because it solidified how much we've accomplished together and the exciting opportunities that are ahead.
When I think about our Department's vision, Transforming healthcare... Optimizing the health and well-being of patients and communities, I'm struck by how this isn't just aspirational language on our website. It's the reality of what you do every day, whether you're teaching medical students, supervising residents, conducting research, or caring for patients throughout southwestern Ontario.
Our commitment to training the next generation of family physicians has never been stronger. We've successfully integrated first-year medical students into primary care through the Longitudinal Clinical Experience, now in its fifth year, providing over 4,800 teaching hours annually. Our innovative Academic Half Day pilot for Year 3 students has received enthusiastic feedback, and we've introduced distinctive programs like the Shelter Health and Social Medicine elective in Windsor.
Perhaps most exciting is our postgraduate program expansion. We're in the midst of adding 30 new residency positions and developing new primary care teaching clinics in Woodstock, Sarnia, and London, as announced by the Ontario government. These sites are in addition to the expansion of residency positions that have already occurred in Ilderton, Petrolia, Stratford, and Kincardine. This is not just growth in numbers, but growth in our capacity to meet the current and future healthcare needs of Southwestern Ontario.
Despite national trends showing less than 3% of CIHR funding flowing to primary care, our research enterprise continues to thrive. From 2022 to 2025, our faculty secured over $6.4 million as principal investigators and contributed to an additional $23.7 million in collaborative research. We've produced 369 publications during this period, addressing topics from artificial intelligence in primary care to patient-centred care for people with multimorbidity.
Our researchers continue to earn national and international recognition. Six current or former faculty members were named among the "50 most cited primary care researchers in Canada." Although it took her to Switzerland, Dr. Jane Thornton's appointment as Medical and Scientific Director of the International Olympic Committee exemplifies the calibre of researchers and leaders within our Department.
In reviewing our progress and accomplishments, it is clear to me that none of this work happens in isolation. Every achievement represents countless hours of dedicated effort and work from full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, staff, residents, and students working together toward common goals. Clinical faculty create learning environments across Southwestern Ontario where students and residents experience the breadth and depth of family medicine, our dedicated administrative team manages the complex logistics that make our distributed model work, and our research team advances knowledge while supporting faculty and trainee scholarship.
While completing the self-study, as I reviewed our strategic plan Passion and Purpose 2027, I recognized how our work ahead aligns with the themes of our strategic outcomes.
Striving for comprehensive mission integration, the boundaries between our education, research, and clinical work are increasingly fluid, exactly as they should be. An example of this is the new Trauma and Violence Specialized Primary Care Clinic at St. Joseph’s Health Care, London. Under the leadership of Dr. Susan McNair, this clinic was designed to provide essential trauma-informed primary care for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, while also serving as an exceptional clinical teaching and research environment.
We will continue working to address the national decline of interest in family medicine head-on by maintaining our commitment to inspiring students through renewed Family Medicine Interest Group activities, increased visibility of engaging young faculty in early medical school years, and unique training opportunities, including distinctive entry pathways, to attract learners to Western. Despite extensive effort with the CFPC on a national three-year residency program curriculum being halted, the work hasn't been wasted. We're planning to incorporate many innovations into our program to make Western uniquely attractive to prospective residents.
Plans are also evolving to expand our Enhanced Skills PGY3 program. This will include relaunching our Family Practice Anesthesia and Care of the Elderly programs to help meet regional and provincial needs for physicians with focused-practice expertise.
No doubt, there are challenges ahead. Recruitment of both clinical and research faculty requires ongoing attention. The national family medicine crisis demands our sustained focus. Expanding programs while maintaining quality requires careful planning and adequate resources. But when I look at what we've accomplished together over these past four years, I'm confident in our path forward.
Our strategic plan guides us, but it's your collective passion and purpose that brings it to life. It's evident in the student who discovers their love of family medicine during a community placement. It's visible in the research that changes practice. It's tangible in the patient whose complex needs are met through our integrated clinical programs. It's felt in the mentorship that develops the next generation of academic family physicians.
As we continue through 2026 and begin planning beyond, I'm grateful for the privilege of working alongside such dedicated colleagues. Thank you for your commitment to our vision of transforming healthcare and optimizing the health and well-being of patients and communities. Together, we're making a difference that extends far beyond our Department's walls.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, if you have comments, questions, feedback, or topics you would like to hear about in future newsletters, please reach out to me – Scott McKay smckay28@uwo.ca
