The Faculty of Medicine’s Building a Healthy Tomorrow campaign has raised more than $5 million for student support, research, and simulation and educational technology.

Dr. Margaret Steele, dean, Faculty of Medicine, says the milestone is good news for the people and communities the faculty serves.

“Thanks to the many donors, our learners, faculty and researchers will have access to the tools and support they need to be the best they can be,” she said.

“Their generosity will help us with our vision to improve the health of the people and communities we serve through excellence, integrated education, research and social accountability.”

‘Navigate and overcome’

Second-year student Jessica Dobson knows first-hand how important student support is.

She says many medical school students struggle to find out who they are while enrolled in the program.

“We ask ourselves if we really deserve to have the privilege to be here,” Ms. Dobson said. “Having been accepted off the wait-list, I was certainly no exception to this.

“Receiving the Dr. Kevin Keough Medical Entrance Bursary a few months into my first year did more than relieve some of the financial strain arising from the high costs of medical school,” she continued. “It also helped me navigate and overcome this self-doubt. It helped me see that, with hard work and dedication, I have the potential to be the great physician that my mentors are.”

Improving lives and health care

More than 700 campaign donors gave more than $3 million for bursaries, scholarships and awards; $1 million for medical research, including obesity, genetics, Indigenous outreach, ovarian cancer, rural and northern health, epilepsy, stroke, heart disease, and others; and nearly $1 million in simulation and educational technology.

“The investment in simulation and educational technology allows our learners to practise skills before they use their skills on real patients,” said Dr. Steele.

“Newer educational technology means we can teach and assess students in a variety of ways. And the donations given for research will allow us to enhance the many facets of research we are doing here at the Faculty of Medicine. All of this improves the lives and the health care of the people we serve.”

“Focused on our special obligation to the province, the Faculty of Medicine contributes significantly to the advancement of teaching and learning, research and public engagement to pursue excellence in health care for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador,” said President Gary Kachanoski.

“We are extremely grateful to our donors. Thanks to them, we have made tremendous progress in advancing priorities that will support our future physicians and health-care researchers — and, ultimately, address health-care challenges directly affecting our communities.”

The Building a Healthy Tomorrow campaign officially launched on July 28, 2016, with a focus on improving the lives of people and the communities through medical education and research.