Welcome to our series, McGill in Quebec: Together for better health, which celebrates the contributions of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences members across Quebec. From Montérégie and Outaouais to Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik, our students, trainees, clinicians and researchers are proud and privileged to partner with local communities to learn and teach, to care for Quebecers and to improve health outcomes for all. Discover their compelling stories.
Nunavimmiut public health officers offer TB outreach in Nunavik.An innovative community-based public health project to support Nunavimmiut (Nunavik Inuit) with tuberculosis got a boost recently when a training session for five new Nunavimmiut tuberculosis public health officers took place in Inukjuak.
Campus Outaouais students partner with Gala robe rouge for heart health. Members of MedCCO from Campus Outaouais recently got gussied up for a good cause: the Gala robe rouge, a fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada held at Gatineau’s Palais des congrès in February. The elegant med students hosted a CPR demonstration kiosk and gave a presentation at the event – which raised $83,250 – to highlight the importance of bystander CPR. Bravo!
Minnie’s Hope: Caring for Indigenous kids in Quebec’s North. A new clinic to support the health and well-being of Indigenous youth in Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuaraapik – part of an innovative social pediatrics project co-founded by FMHS pediatrician Johanne Morel (pictured above left with community members and clinic staff) – had its grand opening in late January.
Romina Pace: Bringing healthcare closer to home in Kahnawá:ke. Access to specialized healthcare can be challenging for Indigenous communities, but a new clinic in Kahnawá:ke is helping bridge the gap. We caught up with clinic co-founder, internist Romina Pace.
New podcast episode! Fields of care: Une perspective rurale. In this second episode, host Maxime Perrine from McGill’s Distributed Medical Education program speaks to La Sarre physician Chantal Charbonneau about practising in a remote region. Listen now.
Catherine Savard-Woods’ empathetic approach. The Gatineau-born family doc heads the GMF-U de Gatineau, the fourth largest in the province. Empathy and teamwork are her watchwords: “Working together, we can always go further!”
Eagle Spirit Science Futures Camp in Akwesasne. IHPP Director Sarah Konwahahawi Rourke shares her reflections on the latest edition of the long-running camp for Indigenous youth, which took place in her community last summer.
Caroline Massicotte: “Right where I want to be“. The Outaouais family doctor, Campus Outaouais professor and public health advocate loves the diversity and challenges her multi-faceted roles offer.
Anne-Michèle Bilodeau-Dubé: Val-d’Or family doc on a mission. Abitibi-Témiscamingue-born and raised, Dr. Bilodeau-Dubé wants to pass the torch to the next generation of aspiring healthcare professionals in the region.
Société inclusive. The School of Physical and Occupational Therapy’s Philippe Archambault is co-lead of the Quebec-wide participative research project which brings together researchers and Quebecers living with a disability.
Living and practising family medicine in Eeyou Itschee. After seven years working in the Cree community of Whapmagoostui, family doc Geneviève Bois is as passionate and enthusiastic as ever.
Partnering with the Cree School Board to address unmet speech-language needs. Last summer, students from McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and their supervisors completed nine speech-language assessments for children in the Cree Nation of Chisasibi
Training family med residents in Gatineau: a welcoming and supportive milieu. We check in with passionate teacher and family doc Lily Han, who hails from Outaouais and since 2020 has been Director of Postgraduate Education at the McGill-affiliated GMF-U de Gatineau.
The essence of family medicine: Justin Ross, MD, has been practising family medicine in Mistissini, Eeyou Istchee, for 10 years and because of the Indigenous community’s hospitality and a high level of job satisfaction, he plans to stay at least another decade.
To try it is to love it: In our interview, Dominique Archambault, family doctor and director of McGill’s Distributed Medical Education Program, talks about the program and why so many fall in love with rural and remote practice once they’ve tried it.
New Podcast Alert! Fields of care: Une perspective rurale: “There’s no other job like it,” says Alexia DeSimone, MDCM, a McGill grad and family doctor in Waswanipi in Eeyou Istchee (Cree territory) in the first episode of Distributed Medical Education’s new podcast exploring healthcare in remote and rural communities. Listen now!
A new vision to tackle opioid addiction in Abitibi-Témiscamingue: Family doctor François Venne fills us in about the new Clinique TAO in Val-d’Or he helped create.
ExploreMD: better access to med school for Outaouais youth: Campus Outaouais student-led initiative invites young people from the underserved region to consider studying medicine – right in their own backyard.
Growing to serve: Campus Outaouais welcomes its biggest cohort ever: With a view to training more physicians to serve the Outaouais region, our Gatineau campus has increased the number of medical students it is training. Check out our reel from the recent Orientation activities at Campus Outaouais, which included new and returning students, read more about the Class of 2028 and view more photos from the day.
Cancer support group Coda goes into overdrive: Student-led Campus Outaouais project Coda has won a Forces AVENIR prize in the Entraide, paix et justice category just as it transitions to a charity, The Coda Foundation. Kudos!
MedCCO: At the heart of the community: CPR and heart disease awareness group Médecins pour le cœur Campus Outaouais (MedCCO) has been recognized for their work by a Forces AVENIR prize in the Santé et saines habitudes de vie category. Bravo!
Remote possibilities – Rural family medicine and the military: Meet Lieutenant Bradley Martire, MD, a second-year family medicine resident and member of the Canadian Armed Forces, who is completing a rural rotation in Shawville. This small town northwest of Gatineau is an accredited training site for McGill.
When wildfires threatened dialysis patients in Eeyou Istchee, these McGill docs sprang into action: In the summer of 2023, as forest fires ravaged northern Quebec, a team of McGill nephrologists and healthcare workers faced an unprecedented challenge: how to save the lives of the dialysis patients of Eeyou Istchee (Cree nation) while keeping communities together. We spoke to the three doctors — Rita Suri, Laura Horowitz and Catherine Weber (above, left to right) — who led the charge, and created a robust emergency dialysis strategy out of the crisis.
Family doc and teacher: The perfect mix for Virginie Dubuc: Dr. Dubuc (second from left) is leading McGill’s family medicine teaching mission at the new GMF-U in Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
