Applications open for first new medical school in the GTA in over a century

TORONTO:

Online applications are now open to prospective students for the first cohort of the MD programme at Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU’s) new School of Medicine, which will be situated in Brampton, Ontario, a diverse and rapidly growing community shaped by increased immigration and in which there is a large Jamaican community.

The school, which is set to open in July 2025, will have 94 undergraduate seats and 105 postgraduate seats. It will welcome its first MD students in September 2025.

The first new medical school to open in the Greater Toronto Area in over a century, TMU’s medical school aims to address the shortage of primary care physicians in Ontario, as well as transform medical education through a focus on community engagement and inclusivity.

Dr Dominick Shelton, the interim assistant dean of recruitment and admissions of the School of Medicine and who is of Jamaican heritage, says they are aiming to train more generalists — primarily family physicians, which also includes paediatrics, general surgery, psychology — because there aren’t enough of them in the system.

“There’s a huge shortage of physicians in general, but particularly of generalists and particularly of family physicians. We will be embedding in our curriculum means of exposing our learners to all the various elements of primary care and frankly, too, so that primary care is appealing to them to want to pursue that in their residency and as a career as a family doctor.”

Through targeted admissions pathways for applicants who identify as Indigenous, Black or another equity-deserving group, the school is working to address persistent underrepresentation in medical schools and the medical profession more broadly.

“We will have three pathways in which individuals can apply through. And so those pathways, in general, are targeting groups that are underrepresented in medicine, and we are demonstrating our commitment by allocating 75 per cent of our seats in our medical school to applicants through the three pathways.”

EQUITY-DESERVING PATHWAY

Dr Shelton says the equity-deserving pathway encompasses several other subgroups such as lower socio-economic, disability, more mature students, and other racialised individuals.

He said the school feels that there are many applicants who are very capable and may have been unsuccessful so far in applying to medical school, or have not felt that there was a place for them. The medical school is hoping to appeal to those individuals.

Dr Shelton says the admissions pathways are designed to account for systemic bias in applicant review processes and eliminate barriers to success for these groups in the medical school admissions process.

“We are also committed to ensuring that the pathways provide an inclusive and supportive process for applicants from these groups,” he said.

Dr Shelton is currently the medical director for quality & safety in the Emergency Department at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and an investigating coroner at the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario.

He believes that the idea of a place where equity and inclusion of all different people is part of its core value, and a desire to serve the community well by being medically and culturally competen, resonates with some potential applicants.

Referencing his own experience, Dr Shelton says that, in high school, although he liked the sciences and considered pursuing medicine, he had doubts.

“Finances was one of the big ones. I can’t afford that tuition,” he told himself, noting that the cost back then was nothing compared to how much it is now.However, through influences and role models in his life who encouraged him, he decided to pursue the medical field.

He immigrated to Canada from England with his parents in 1975.

Dr Shelton says the school will have a dedicated team for the students, such as the Black Health support which will create a safe space for black students, and likewise supports for Indigenous students.

“We realise that there is intersectionality between economic status and a lot of the students who we are aiming to recruit. We know that that will be an issue in terms of being able to afford the tuition and so we are fervently working in the background to secure donors and funding to provide scholarships.”

The Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools recently granted preliminary accreditation for its four-year MD programme, making the School of Medicine the 18th accredited medical school in Canada.

Mohamed Lachemi, president and vice chancellor of TMU, said the accreditation brings the School of Medicine closer to opening its doors to the next generation of doctors, and to empowering them to innovate, disrupt and drive change within the healthcare system.

Dr Teresa Chan, dean of the School of Medicine and vice-president, medical affairs, said training innovative, inclusive physicians starts at recruitment.