Dr Michel Carrier
Chair
We present the results of my first year as surgical chair to the Department’s management and the annual report of the last two years. We have experienced many changes during this period, many of which are ongoing and will have a significant influence on our work as teachers, researchers, experts and clinicians. I am proud to present our achievements and the challenges for years to come.
As teachers, the Royal College seeks to implement the new skill-based training program. This will require the involvement of all teachers on a day-to-day basis in the management and evaluation of competencies whose achievement must be constantly evaluated by the faculty. Our program directors and their committees are actively working on these drastic changes in our training methods, which are particularly challenging in our areas of technical and surgical know-how.
As researchers, we have 13 university research chairs in support of the Department’s research activities. Although external support for research remains extremely competitive, several researchers from our Department have obtained significant budgetary funding. We now have three new clinician scientists recognized by the FRQS and an annual research support of $ 6 to $ 8 million. We recently welcomed two new basic researchers in support of certain research activities. Despite an increase in the range of clinical responsibilities and the teaching load of our professors, we saw an increase in our scientific production with 600 publications in scientific journals over the past two years.
As clinicians, clinical responsibility increases in an environment of structural changes that are sometimes destabilizing. It should be emphasized the creation of the Montréal Integrated University Health and Social Services Centers, the move to the new pavilion at the CHU Sainte-Justine and the upcoming regrouping at the CHUM Saint-Luc. These are profound changes in the functioning of our institutions in which we perform our tasks as clinicians and teachers.
We now have 394 professors in the Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montréal. Over the past two years we have welcomed 36 new clinical lecturers and recruited 18 assistant professors following fellowship training outside our institutions. We have also successfully promoted 11 of our professors as clinical associate professors and 5 as clinical professors. Our faculty is involved in the training of more than 150 residents and 50 researchers and fellows annually in 10 specialized surgical training programs.
Also noteworthy is the excellent success rate of our residents in the final exam training programs, in addition to solid technical and clinical surgical training. Undoubtedly, our students have unique clinical exposure in terms of variety, number and quality. They will therefore be better surgeons as they begin active practice.
Let us note finally that the generous support of our teachers for our academic activities allows us to increase the number of departmental meetings, scientific and pedagogical conferences. Our departmental activities have been supplemented by an autumn reception honoring our young researchers and teachers and an end-of-year meeting where we acknowledge all of our graduating fellows.
We are extremely grateful to all of our teaching staff who, on a daily basis, share the heavy burden of clinical teaching with pre-graduate students, residents and clinical monitors in our hospitals, not to mention all the students in the research laboratories. Our various program and committee directors are doing an extraordinary job in maintaining and promoting the activities of the Department.
Improving our day-to-day teaching and increasing our productivity in research and development are objectives to be maintained over the years for our Department, for each of the programs and for each of the specialties. An increase in the teaching load and a decrease in the number of residents in surgical specialties are unfortunately foreseen for the coming years. We will have to innovate, restructure our work and optimize our priorities.
Many thanks to all for the work accomplished and let us meet these challenges together!
Dr Michel Carrier
Chair