Seventeen students in the IMP Class of 2020 – more than half of the class – graduated from high schools on Vancouver Island. Eight students attended schools located in the greater Victoria area, four in the Nanaimo Regional District, two in Mill Bay, two in Campbell River, and one in Comox.
Thirteen of those 17 students also completed their pre-medical studies on Vancouver Island, specifically at the University of Victoria (UVic).
“The IMP Class of 2020 represents a great success for medical education on Vancouver Island,” says Dr. Bruce Wright, Regional Associate Dean, Vancouver Island, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, and Head, Division of Medical Sciences, UVic.
The IMP delivers the UBC MD program in collaboration with UVic and Island Health. Based on UVic campus and at affiliated healthcare centres across Vancouver Island, the IMP is part of Canada’s first fully distributed undergraduate medical education program, which was created in 2004 to help address regional shortages of physicians, particularly in remote, rural, and Indigenous communities.
“Studies have shown that doctors are more likely to set up practice where they train,” says Dr. Bruce Wright, Regional Associate Dean, Vancouver Island, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, and Head, Division of Medical Sciences, UVic. “We’re already seeing evidence of this on Vancouver Island. More than 450 UBC MD students who graduated between 2000 and 2017 are now practicing on the Island, 289 of which are family doctors.”
“Community and family connections are also important factors for new physicians, so it’s vital our program attracts students from the local area.”
In 2017/18, one quarter of UBC medical students were high school graduates from Vancouver Island.
All 32 graduating students the IMP Class of 2020 were successful in the Canadian Residency Matching Service. Family medicine was the most popular discipline, with 41 per cent of the class matching to it. The remaining graduates matched to Royal College programs ranging from anesthesiology to urology. BC is fortunate to have 50 per cent of the IMP’s newest graduates remaining in the province to train, with 22 per cent of the class specifically attending residency programs on Vancouver Island. Their residencies begin in July.
Every year, more than 2,930 UBC medical student and resident rotations take place in hospitals, primary care settings and clinics across the Island and surrounding region.