MARTLETS

Medical informatics. The name doesn't sound very inspiring. What it is, though, is something quite revolutionary: a dramatic innovation that will eventually change the way medicine is taught at McGill. Aided by a $3.75 million grant from the Molson Foundation, the Faculty of Medicine is placing its first- and second-year curriculum, including lecture material and full-colour, 3-D clinical simulations, onto CD-ROM and the Internet. This will not only replace reams of notebooks and flat images but, in the long run, alter the function of teachers, who will be able to spend more time in discussion and less on lecturing. "The idea is to take the medical knowledge sitting in the heads of our world-renowned experts," says David Fleiszer, BSc'69, MD'73, MSc'79, Assistant Dean of Medical Informatics, "and put it into the computer in an interactive form."

Although the program is unique in Canada -- several American schools have the technology -- McGill and other universities, including Sherbrooke, Laval and Montreal, will develop a consortium to share the information. Students will eventually have access to files from other med schools, enabling each university to specialize and become more efficient. The material will also be accessible to doctors and patients.

A teaching module from the first four weeks of the curriculum,"Molecules, Cells and Tissues," has been developed as a demonstration; by September, several teaching units will be available to students.

Most National, Most International

McGill students this academic year will experience the most diverse student body of any Canadian university. According to Registrar's Office statistics, McGill has the most out-of-province students, some 36.2 percent at the undergraduate level, and the most foreign students, 11 percentof the total student body. "We recruit locally, nationally and internationally to encourage a great number of high-quality applications," says Director of Admissions Mariela Johansen. She says the culturally varied city of Montreal is an attraction for out-of-province students, many of whom have come through French immersion and want to use the language.

Right on, Rhodes

Like proud parents announcing births, McGill is delighted to present the two Rhodes Scholars for 1996: Shariq Lodhi, 21, of Saint John, New Brunswick, and Lisa Grushcow, 21, of Montreal. Lodhi is a dean's list chemistry student who has competed in varsity rowing and cross-country skiing. He plays the cello and organizes concerts for the Royal Victoria Hospital Palliative Care Unit which uses music therapy to comfort patients. He hopes to become a doctor after studying at Oxford.

Grushcow is studying political science, with a minor in Jewish Studies, and hopes to become a rabbi. She is currently the Students' Society vice-president of student affairs and has a wide range of extracurricular activities, from journalism and acting to women's groups. She will study within Oxford's Faculty of Oriental Studies and Theology.

By the Skin of their Teeth

The closing of the Faculty of Dentistry was a done deal. Or so most people thought

July 17, 1991, could have gone down as Black Wednesday in the 95-year Faculty of Dentistry history. Instead, it became a footnote and major turning point that rallied dental faculty, students, alumni and Montreal-area supporters.

On that 1991 day, Principal David Johnston announced to the Dentistry professors that the University governance had decided that the Faculty would stop admitting students and close by 1996. He said the high cost of educating dental students and the Faculty's lack of research and post-graduate programs left the administration no choice. In short, Dentistry did not fulfill McGill's latest stated priorities: to become a major research institution with a high proportion of graduate students.

Present at the fateful announcement was Montreal dentist Norman Miller, DDS'74, a McGill part-time lecturer. In an interview from his Westmount office, Miller recalls, "I asked what could be done to change the decision. They said, 'Nothing. The money you could raise couldn't possibly be enough.' But they couldn't answer me when I asked how much money would be needed to save the school, because they never thought of the possibility."

Miller organized a committee of fellow lecturers and began a campaign to fight the decision." The benefits of the school go to the public," says Miller. "We thought the public should be informed." Graduates, too, would be affected: Dentistry's closing could decrease the value of the degrees of its 1,900 alumni. The support was immediate. Miller's group raised nearly $20,000 to hire a public relations person to communicate Dentistry's merit. The implications of the loss of Quebec's only anglophone dental school were well covered in the daily media.

After vocal student demonstrations and alumni protestations, the McGill administration came up with a renewal plan for the Faculty in September 1991. It had one year to fulfill eight conditions: decrease the number of students from 26 to 24; develop a master's degree program that would attract research funds; increase faculty research; decrease the salaries of casual lectures; establish criteria for evaluating academic performance; ensure that the dental clinic would become self-financing; arrange to rent clinic and research space at the Montreal General Hospital; and, finally, raise $1.6 million to upgrade equipment.

The apparent stumbling block was the last requirement. But Nicholas Offord, Director of McGill's Development Office at the time, drew up the fundraising game plan. Offord recently told the McGill News, "What we tried to impress on alumni was, 'Are you ready to let the Faculty fall because of $1.6 million?' " "The community put its money where its mouth was," Miller says. "We raised the money in less than six months." In October 1992, Principal Johnston announced that Dentistry had met its conditions and would remain open.

Last September, the Faculty introduced its new McCall Dental Clinic at the Montreal General Hospital. Generosity, and luck, played a large part in the clinic's opening, which offers the latest dental technology at a reduced cost to the public. A significant portion of the facility's funds was donated by McGill philosophy professor Storrs McCall, BA'52, through The McGill Twenty-First Century Fund. Professor McCall says, "I was looking to make a donation in the field of medicine in the name of my parents [G. Ronald McCall, BSc(Arts)'21, MD'39, DipPH'41, and M. Frances McCall, BA'26, MD'42]. And the most pressing need was the dental clinic, which serves the community and had outdated equipment."

As per the other conditions, the Faculty now joins several Canadian universities in offering a master's program, and has more researchers on staff, including new dean, James Lund. Part-time lecturers earn about half of what they once made. "That wasn't a big deal," says Miller. "Even before, our staff was able to earn much more doing clinical work than teaching. They do it for the benefits of teaching at a university." Miller, who is now the Faculty's first Associate Dean, Community Relations, says, "What we face now is what the University faces: budget cuts."

Dentistry is currently changing its curriculum, and dental students now attend some medical school classes. Their experience can be translated to other struggling areas of McGill, says Miller. "Dentistry needed to change the way it managed itself. I think that if the issue is resources, it's fixable. It boils down to finding alternative solutions."