McGill University partners with the Université du Québec en Outaouais to offer its Medicine Preparatory Program as of September 2020

Full range of McGill medical training now available in Outaouais in French

By Lisa Dutton and Marie-Claude Béland

“This is a great day for Outaouais,” said Mathieu Lacombe, the Quebec Minister responsible for the region during a press conference on Monday, February 10 to announce the launch of the McGill Faculty of Science’s Medicine Preparatory (Med-P) Program in Gatineau. The project is a partnership between McGill and the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO). The first cohort of 20 CEGEP graduates will start their training in September with classes held at UQO. “Students will come here; they will complete their entire medical training, they will fall in love with the region and they will stay here to practice medicine,” said M. Lacombe.

With the addition of this program, McGill and its partners now offer the full range of medical training in Outaouais: Med-P, Undergraduate Medical Education and Postgraduate Medical Education in Family Medicine. All programs will be offered 100% in French.

“McGill is proud to have collaborated with its partners in the Outaouais region since 1988. We are pleased to continue this tradition with UQO,” says Dr. David Eidelman, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. “By offering our programs in Gatineau, we are training a new generation of leaders in family medicine and other specialties in Outaouais. Our goal is to create a centre of excellence in health with our partners to attract more medical students and residents who will come to Outaouais to train and then practise here.”

“UQO is proud to collaborate with McGill to welcome these future medical graduates and to participate in their training and integration into the region,” says UQO Rector Denis Harrisson. “The arrival of this new cohort of students at UQO will bring a new dynamic to our university and is an important step in the development of our new health sciences programs.”

The McGill Med-P Program consists of 10 courses (six compulsory science courses, three complementary courses and one elective), which will be taught in French at UQO. Professors from McGill’s Faculty of Science will teach the life sciences courses (such as biology and physiology), and professors from UQO will teach the statistics, humanities and social sciences courses. The goal of the program is to prepare CEGEP graduates for the McGill Faculty of Medicine’s Undergraduate Medical Education Program at the new Campus Outaouais.

“It is gratifying to know that the Faculty of Science, in collaboration with UQO, will help CEGEP graduates on their path towards becoming McGill medical graduates,” says Bruce Lennox, Dean of the Faculty of Science at McGill University. “By offering this program in French in Outaouais, our two universities are partnering to provide excellent preparatory training locally.”

The launch of the preparatory year in medicine in Gatineau coincides with the start of the Undergraduate Medical Education Program at McGill’s Campus Outaouais, located on the site of the Hôpital de Gatineau. Each year, Campus Outaouais, a partnership between McGill and the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l’Outaouais, will welcome a cohort of 24 students, for a total of 96 students over the four-year program, in addition to the students in Med-P at UQO.

“The partnership with UQO to offer the McGill Med-P in Gatineau in September is a great accomplishment. I want to thank the UQO-McGill team who worked hard to make this project a reality,” says Dr. Samuel Benaroya, Associate Vice-Principal and Vice-Dean (Health Affairs) at McGill University. “Today’s announcement is great news for the region, and we are proud to be working together to train the next generation of physicians here.”