This week it was announced that Dr. Robert Bell, present CEO of University Health Network, will become our next Deputy Minister of Health. He replaces Saäd Rafi who served in the position for four years and was widely considered to have been an excellent Deputy who served the Province well.   Mr. Rafi went on to assume a new position as Chief Executive of the Pan Am Games.

This week we are changing the name of our Medical Education Technology Unit (or MEdTech as it is commonly known) to the Health Sciences Education Technology Unit. The new name more accurately reflects the scope of their service, a service I might add that is foundational to our education delivery in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

The 2002 “Strategic Plan for Education Technology in the School of Medicine” report recommended the creation of a dedicated unit to ensure that our medical students were able to consistently access learning resources online.

Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the world. In Manitoba for example, the age-adjusted prevalence has been estimated to be 226.7 per 100,000 (Marrie et al, 2010). In comparison, rates in Hong Kong have been reported to be 0.77 per 100,000 (Lau et al, 2002). Mobility and balance impairments are commonly experienced by people with MS, and place them at high risk of accidental falls. In fact, more than 50% of people with MS will experience a fall in a 6 month period and approximately ½ of those falls will require medical attention (Gunn et al, 2013).

Last week you might have heard about the release of the Family Medicine Expansion Report, released by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU). The report details a very successful decade-long effort by Ontario’s medical schools and the provincial government to deal with a shortage of family doctors.