Hi Everyone,

Well, it has been a busy first three weeks on the job. Along with the usual work of onboarding, orientation, signing up for Blue Cross and making sure I was on the payroll, I have been diving into the job and have gone to a national meeting.

I am also happy to say at home in Stanhope, the boxes are all gone, the pictures are all hung, you can walk through the garage, the two Springers (Murphy and Lincoln) are getting to know Stanhope with their walks, and most importantly, Jane’s car (and her independence) has arrived.

Health PEI warmly welcomed me in my new role as Chief Academic Officer. I have had a chance to welcome our new CEO, Melanie Fraser, and I certainly appreciate her enthusiastic support for the medical school. I have attended two Executive Leadership Team meetings and appreciate their warm welcome.

I look forward to getting to know the Med Ed team at Health PEI.

At the Faculty of Medicine in our temporary offices on Belvedere Avenue, we are now up to a team of 17 with an approved budget for 2024-2025, allowing that team to grow further to ensure we are ready for August 2025. I have been meeting with the team leaders and reviewing their portfolios, work done to date and next steps. I am highly impressed by the team’s accomplishments, the skills of the team, the effective project planning approach, and the remarkable esprit de corps amongst the team. These people are doing a great job and are having fun doing it! And as you can see on University Avenue, a beautiful building which will have great resources for all UPEI health professions, Health PEI, and all of PEI is taking shape nicely.

Recently, some members of the FoM team and I went to the International Congress on Academic Medicine in Vancouver, the premier Canadian meeting for medical schools and medical education with over 1,250 participants. It was fun being one of the new kids on the block (my friends might find that funny – I mean UPEI), and there was great interest and enthusiasm for what we are doing on PEI.

However, we were certainly not alone, as Canada has seen the most significant expansion in medical and health education since four new medical schools opened at the time of Confederation in 1967. Many new campuses are being planned, and three other universities are starting new medical schools (TMU, SFU, and York). One speaker jokingly said: “Stand up if you are not starting a new campus or medical school. Or, more correctly, stand up if your government hasn’t told you to start a new campus or medical school!” Seriously though, we had great opportunities to network and learn from established medical schools and others like us. Islanders can take pride, as I was convinced we are holding our own and ahead of some in this enormous national effort to contribute to the solution of the massive local and national shortage of healthcare professionals.

Besides the growth of enrollment and programs, the conference’s key themes were indigenous health, equity, diversity, inclusivity, anti-racism, accessibility, interprofessional education, team-based care, simulation-based education, and artificial intelligence. It was a great conference with excellent education and networking.

And Vancouver is a wonderful city when the sun shines, and it did. We had lovely weather and got to see a bit of the city, ocean, and mountains. One of my favourite places in the country to run is the “seawall,” I managed to squeeze that in, as well as a nice restaurant or two.

I am happy to be back home, and the weeks ahead are full! I chair the first accreditation of Toronto Metropolitan University in May and June. I have meetings scheduled with doctors around the province and do my first road trip to Prince County Hospital with some Health PEI colleagues in the next few weeks. And there are a few moving-related jobs left to do, like getting an ID card at two places, getting the cars inspected (I didn’t do that in SK) and registered, and finishing the garage!

My door is open, and I am happy to take your call or meet wherever is convenient for you.

Greetings everyone,

As I step into my role as dean, I’d like to share a few thoughts on the road ahead and why I find myself drawn to this opportunity.

Firstly, it’s wonderful to be back on the Island. My wife Jane, our two dogs Murphy and Lincoln, and I recently made the journey from Saskatoon to Stanhope, and the warmth of your Island welcome hasn’t gone unnoticed. We are thrilled to be here. Thank you for making us feel so at home.

The second is a little about me and why I want to work here. My passion is what medical education and research can do in every community it touches, and your vision here to build a program to help meet the needs of Islanders from tip to tip is ambitious, compelling, and exciting. Returning to the Maritimes to do it is a terrific bonus.

A bit about my background: I’m a DAL Medical School graduate and spent 25 years as a family physician in Moncton. During my tenure as VP of Medicine in New Brunswick, during the transition from that province’s 52 hospitals to eight regions, I gained significant expertise in health system reform and administration. I held the position of Senior Associate Dean of Education within the Faculty of Medicine at DAL and had a leadership role in developing and overseeing the new Dalhousie medical education program, launched in Saint John. I had the privilege to be involved in starting new family medicine residency programs in PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Most recently, when I was Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, my team and I led a significant restructuring of the College of Medicine. Throughout my career, I have been involved in creating programs from the ground up, change management, and fixing programs that need help. This opportunity to be part of building something new and unique, while partnering with Memorial’s award-winning medical school is an opportunity I am very excited to take on.

Successfully engaging our existing physicians and attracting more physicians to the Island are both critically important to the success of PEI’s medical school and, frankly, the future of the healthcare system. There is no doubt it will be challenging to develop a medical school in a post-pandemic healthcare system that is already strained. UPEI and Health PEI have a duty to proceed with care, so Islanders are well served and to create an environment where physicians want to participate. I am really looking forward to working with the physician community, Health PEI, the university community, and others to bring this to fruition.

As I will often say in closing my blog, my door is open, and I am happy to chat. I look forward to settling in and getting to know each of you better.