UPEI has recruited 99 doctors as faculty for new medical school

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When pediatrician Peter MacPherson moved to P.E.I. three years ago to be closer to family, he left behind a role as a clinician educator at Queens University in Kingston, Ont.

At the time, MacPherson felt his move to the Island meant he would be giving up his professional role in medical education.

“That’s no longer the case,” MacPherson told The Guardian in a recent interview.

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Since January, MacPherson has been working as the associate dean for P.E.I.’s soon-to-open regional campus of Memorial University’s faculty of medicine.

With MUN’s new satellite medical campus at UPEI set to welcome students this fall, MacPherson said the brand-new medical program is already proving to be a popular draw for physicians.

MacPherson said 99 P.E.I.-based doctors have been appointed within the new faculty of medicine, with varying time commitments.

This first class will consist of 20 medical students, who will be based in P.E.I. but enrolled as students of Memorial University.

Boosting health system

This first cohort of students are expected to graduate in 2029 and will then need to undergo a multi-year residency. But administrators say the new faculty of medicine is already providing a benefit to the province’s health system by helping to recruit and retain doctors to the province.

“I think that’s been our experience. When we’re talking with either young physicians who are looking where to set up a practice, or existing physicians considering a move … medical education is a big draw,” MacPherson said.

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It’s a point that has been made repeatedly in press interviews by UPEI’s dean of the faculty of medicine, Dr. Preston Smith.

Smith said he attended an event on March 22 with family medicine residents in P.E.I.

“Most of them are in negotiations with Health P.E.I. for a position. And every one of them that I spoke to on Saturday night — their first question to me was ‘how do I get a faculty appointment?’” he said.

Collaborative care

P.E.I. is facing a severe shortage of family physicians. As of Feb. 28, more than 38,000 Prince Edward Island residents – more than 20 per cent of the population – did not have a primary care provider.

The problem is national in scope. A national survey conducted in 2023 by OurCare found 22 per cent of adults in Canada lack access to a primary care provider.

Part of the response of the P.E.I. government has been to dedicate tens of millions in public funding to the new UPEI faculty of medicine. The province has also been focused on developing a province-wide network of “medical homes” – collaborative practices that involve care from physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and other allied health professionals.

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Smith says UPEI’s new medical faculty will be focused on training students to practise in these team-based settings, which he described as “the future of primary care.” The new faculty of medicine building will also house the province’s largest medical home, expected to have a patient load of 10,000.

Smith said the UPEI medical home, which will be operated by Health P.E.I., is expected to open in October or November.

“So it’s great role-modelling that the clinic is actually in the building,” Smith said.

It is not yet known which students will be selected as the first cohort of medical students at UPEI. Acceptance letters have yet to be sent out.

“The 20 students haven’t received the good news yet but that will be coming shortly,” MacPherson said.

Remote instruction

The first crop of UPEI’s medical students can expect lectures to be delivered remotely by faculty based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Dolores McKeen, Memorial University’s dean of the faculty of medicine, said UPEI and MUN’s facilities will offer a remote learning experience more interactive than a standard webinar.

“There are cameras that focus in on the learner if they put up their hand to ask a question,” McKeen said. “They all have microphones. So it’s a very interactive, real-time dynamic, virtual sort of simultaneously broadcasting.”

The first year will be more classroom-based than later years with instructional days involving a mixture of lectures and in-person labs. Small groups sessions will bring students in contact with practising physicians.

At the end of the first year, students will spend two weeks working directly with family physicians.

Warming reception

The timeline for opening UPEI’s faculty of medicine has generated some friction in the province.

Former Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam was critical of the fall 2025 opening date, which he argued would place a burden on the province’s already overstretched health system.

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A 2023 report by a consultancy firm known as Spindle noted the province’s physicians had not been “meaningfully engaged” in the planning process for the new medical faculty.

MacPherson and Smith said things have changed since then, and that the reception among physicians has warmed.

The Spindle report had estimated UPEI would need to recruit 44 physician educators by the first year of the medical school’s operation, assuming all would dedicate at least 20 per cent of their time to teaching.

MacPherson said the 99 physician faculty members who have been recruited to date will have varying time commitments, with some spending as little as two to three hours on teaching.

“I think the fact that we’ve had such substantial interest among practising physicians would suggest that a lot of things we’re asking folks are pretty reasonable,” MacPherson said.

Over five weeks, we are chronicling our community’s place in the country, the promise of greater prosperity, and the blueprint to get there. See the “How Canada Wins” series intro and other local stories here.

Stu Neatby is a political reporter for The Guardian in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @stu_neatby.

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