At the MDCM Awards Ceremony at the McIntyre Building, preceding the Health Sciences Convocation on main campus, Tuesday, May 31, Med e-News caught up with Vice-Principal of Health Affairs and Dean of Medicine, Dr. Richard I. Levin, to ask him to say a few words about his time at the helm and what he envisioned for the Classes of 2011.
Med e-News: What are your reflections, Dr. Levin, this Convocation Day 2011?
Dr. Levin: I just want to say it has been an extraordinary five years. It was a great adventure for both my wife, Jane, and myself. Everything that we anticipated about McGill turned out to be true. The faculty, the students the environment is so rich and so rewarding, it has been an exceptional time. It couldn’t have been any better, and so in facing whatever the next chapter may be, we have this wonderful experience that most in their lives don’t have a chance to live, and we’re very grateful. We came from New York City. We had spent most of our adult lives in the city at NYU and Cornell. We came up here in 2006 to take the Deanship. It was quite a step – a new country, a new culture, a new school, a new language, a new healthcare system – it was all we had anticipated, and more.
Med e-News: At this Awards Ceremony, family, friends, significant others celebrated the Graduating MDCM Class of 2011; what now lies ahead for them?
Dr. Levin: Osler had an approach to medical education that was a major advance for the time – 100 years ago – and we have taken on the responsibility of modernizing his approach, building on one of his most fundamental principles: that the patient must be at the centre of everything you do in medical education. But we are now expanding it, bringing it to a more intimate level, so that the doctor caring for the patient will understand the individual in a brand new way, based on the genomic heritage the patient brings to wellness and to illness.
For the first time in history, the physician is going to have the awesome responsibility of understanding what that genetic heritage is all about, and trying to help the patient through a lifetime of wellness and molecular prevention. This class will be part of that adventure.
Dr. Levin: The students have never disappointed. They are the best and the brightest. It is very difficult to get into the Faculty of Medicine or its Schools as a student, and they all come with extraordinary accomplishments. Even the youngest ones who come directly from CEGEP have done amazing things in their young lives and they have extraordinary expectations. Our job is not to disappoint them at any juncture, to make sure we give them the grounding in the sciences, which are the language of medicine, but to also let them dream as broadly as possible about what their lives might be like. In this class, we will have great scholars and scientists, great docs, who will practice all of their lives and take care of us aging faculty and staff.
Med e-News: Do you have any final message to these new physicians?
Dr. Levin: I’ve always felt passionately that medicine and health sciences education are major contributors to the advancement of society, and this class has adopted that idea fully. I expect great, great things from this MDCM class, from our students, masters and PhDs in Nursing, P&OT and Communications Sciences and Disorders, and I congratulate all of them warmly.
Read more on the class of 2011 ►At the MDCM Awards Ceremony at the McIntyre Building, preceding the Health Sciences Convocation on main campus, Tuesday, May 31, Med e-News caught up with Vice-Principal of Health Affairs and Dean of Medicine, Dr. Richard I. Levin, to ask him to say a few words about his time at the helm and what he envisioned for the Classes of 2011.
Med e-News: What are your reflections, Dr. Levin, this Convocation Day 2011?
Dr. Levin: I just want to say it has been an extraordinary five years. It was a great adventure for both my wife, Jane, and myself. Everything that we anticipated about McGill turned out to be true. The faculty, the students the environment is so rich and so rewarding, it has been an exceptional time. It couldn’t have been any better, and so in facing whatever the next chapter may be, we have this wonderful experience that most in their lives don’t have a chance to live, and we’re very grateful. We came from New York City. We had spent most of our adult lives in the city at NYU and Cornell. We came up here in 2006 to take the Deanship. It was quite a step – a new country, a new culture, a new school, a new language, a new healthcare system – it was all we had anticipated, and more.
Med e-News: At this Awards Ceremony, family, friends, significant others celebrated the Graduating MDCM Class of 2011; what now lies ahead for them?
Dr. Levin: Osler had an approach to medical education that was a major advance for the time – 100 years ago – and we have taken on the responsibility of modernizing his approach, building on one of his most fundamental principles: that the patient must be at the centre of everything you do in medical education. But we are now expanding it, bringing it to a more intimate level, so that the doctor caring for the patient will understand the individual in a brand new way, based on the genomic heritage the patient brings to wellness and to illness.
For the first time in history, the physician is going to have the awesome responsibility of understanding what that genetic heritage is all about, and trying to help the patient through a lifetime of wellness and molecular prevention. This class will be part of that adventure.
Dr. Levin: The students have never disappointed. They are the best and the brightest. It is very difficult to get into the Faculty of Medicine or its Schools as a student, and they all come with extraordinary accomplishments. Even the youngest ones who come directly from CEGEP have done amazing things in their young lives and they have extraordinary expectations. Our job is not to disappoint them at any juncture, to make sure we give them the grounding in the sciences, which are the language of medicine, but to also let them dream as broadly as possible about what their lives might be like. In this class, we will have great scholars and scientists, great docs, who will practice all of their lives and take care of us aging faculty and staff.
Med e-News: Do you have any final message to these new physicians?
Dr. Levin: I’ve always felt passionately that medicine and health sciences education are major contributors to the advancement of society, and this class has adopted that idea fully. I expect great, great things from this MDCM class, from our students, masters and PhDs in Nursing, P&OT and Communications Sciences and Disorders, and I congratulate all of them warmly.
Read more on the class of 2011 ►