BC names interim dean of new medical school

SURREY, BC – A new medical school on the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Surrey campus is taking a significant step forward with the hiring of an interim dean and provincial funding to support its development. SFU has retained an interim dean, Dr. Roger Strasser (pictured), who will provide strategic leadership in the planning and implementation of the medical school.

Dr. Strasser was the founding dean and CEO of the Northern Ontario school of medicine and is a recognized leader in the development of health professional education.

As well, the province is investing as much as $4.9 million in start-up funding to support activities such as accreditation, curriculum planning, engagement, space planning and professional staff to support the SFU medical school project office.

“While we have made enormous progress to strengthen public healthcare over the past five years, we know that many British Columbians are struggling to find a family doctor and waiting too long for care on a waiting list or in an emergency room,” said Premier David Eby.

“That’s why are taking action to train, recruit and retain family doctors now – and taking these steps with Simon Fraser University to train the health workforce we’ll need in the future. This investment in the first entirely new medical school in western Canada in 55 years will mean more family doctors graduating each year to provide care for people.”

The new medical school curriculum will be built on four pillars:

• Educate graduates who are well prepared to provide the prevention and primary care needs of diverse communities and populations.
• Educate physicians to work in team-based primary care settings that are patient-centred and socially accountable.
• Commit to reciprocal community partnerships in the development and implementation of the medical school.
• Embed and equalize Indigenous knowledge systems.

SFU’s medical school will take a focused approach to primary care, based on the university’s strength in community engagement and strong partnerships with the First Nations Health Authority, the Fraser Health Authority, other provincial health authorities and the practice community. Reciprocity, cultural safety and humility will be embedded throughout the school, along with First Nations, Inuit and Métis knowledge systems and perspectives.

“We’re marking a major milestone today in our commitment to train the doctors of tomorrow as work to establish B.C.’s second medical school takes a significant step forward,” said Adrian Dix, minister of health. “The new SFU medical school will create more opportunities for future doctors to learn, train and stay on to practise in communities throughout B.C. In turn, British Columbians will have increased access to highly skilled, dedicated doctors close to home.”

This new investment builds on $1.5 million provided to the university earlier this year by the province to support the development of the business case. A project board has been established to oversee this work.

SFU is working toward its first student intake by September 2026. Establishing a new medical school at SFU complements the more immediate work the province is doing to train, recruit and retain more family physicians to meet the challenges people in British Columbia are now facing.

This announcement builds on other actions to train and recruit more health-care workers in B.C., including 602 new nursing seats and 322 allied health seats added to public post-secondary institutions throughout the province and recruiting 9,000 people through the health-career access program.

The province also recently announced a seat expansion at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) faculty of medicine to train more doctors in B.C. This includes 40 new undergraduate medical education seats and as many as 88 new residency seats at the UBC faculty of medicine, which will be phased in throughout the province beginning in 2023. The expansion will create more opportunities for students and resident doctors to learn, train and stay on to practise in communities throughout B.C.

Training and retaining new physicians is just one part of B.C.’s Health Human Resources Strategy. It’s also part of StrongerBC’s Future Ready Plan, which is making education and training more accessible, affordable and relevant to help businesses grow and prepare British Columbians for the jobs of tomorrow.