Drug manufacturer ALTANA Pharma Inc. has launched a $125,000 scholarship fund that will give one annual $5,000 scholarship in each of the five medical schools - including the University of Ottawa - to a student who is pursuing family medicine as a specialty.
The fund will remain active for the next five years.
The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship was created as a result of a recent forum sponsored by the company and the Ontario College of Family Physicians. The forum's report said that more medical students should be encouraged to go into family medicine - a field which is considered the cornerstone of the province's health-care system.
“The scholarship program was designed to help address the severe shortage of family physicians in Ontario,” says John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma in Canada. “It allows us to do something at the supply source - medical schools.”
The scholarship is a “very welcome initiative,” said Dr. John Shearman, who is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and a physician affiliated with the Elisabeth Bruyère Family Medicine Centre. “Anything that will help students is worthwhile.”
The cost of a medical school education is rising precipitously. According to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, average tuition fees in Ontario for medical school have risen over 400 percent in the past ten years.
The family physician shortage problem in Ontario affects large communities as well as towns and rural areas across the province. The situation can only get worse with a quarter of family doctors in Ontario expected to retire and fewer family doctors coming into the system, while a large number are thinking of leaving the profession or the province.
Dr. Shearman says that medical schools face obstacles in trying to promote “generalism,” including “negative attitudes” among some medical specialists. “The practice of family medicine requires a lot of skills,” he said. “You're learning all the time. It's harder in some ways than having a specialty.”
ALTANA Pharma Inc.
University of Ottawa Department of Family Medicine
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