News Release

MEDIA ADVISORY – February 9, 2006

ATTN: NEWS / HEALTH / EDUCATION/ LIFESTYLE / GTA

Trillium Health Centre and The Credit Valley Hospital To Collaborate with University of Toronto Mississauga Campus For Unique Medical Student Training Initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Mississauga and Toronto, ON): The Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre are pleased to collaborate with the University of Toronto Mississauga campus to help shape the future of health care delivery by physicians in Ontario.

The Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre would offer a unique learning experience not currently available to MD students at U of T. The purpose of the UTM expansion of its MD program into Mississauga is to broaden and enrich the MD student experience beyond the current academic/research based hospital program to include primary, secondary and tertiary care based in community hos-pitals. These students have not yet decided what field of medicine they will event-ually choose as their specialty. The “distributed education” approach will en-courage more students to think about selecting a career in family and community medicine, and the generalist specialties such as general surgery, general paediat-rics, general internal medicine, and general psychiatry. It is hoped this initiative would lead to increased access to physician services for our communities.

Community hospitals offer opportunities to witness and diagnose everyday medical problems that doctors experience in community settings. They would also experi-ence the very real pressures and challenges posed by fast-paced, high traffic, cul-turally diverse health-care settings.

Today’s announcement, by the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care bodes well for the residents of Peel, Halton and West Toronto and high growth regions throughout the province. More opportunities for medical students through increased enrolment and through excellent learning experiences will add to the number of skilled physicians in the Peel, Halton and West Toronto area as well as throughout the province.

Wayne Fyffe president and CEO, The Credit Valley Hospital, said following today’s announcement, “The students would bring with them fresh ideas and many ques-tions to challenge us, which can be invigorating for the physician teachers as well as the other members of our caregiver team.”

Ken White, president and CEO, Trillium Health Centre, said, "At Trillium we are committed to providing our community with greater access to health care. This collaboration could provide medical students with vast comprehensive community-based learning opportunities."

The two organizations look forward to creating a model that will meet the needs of both the university and the community we serve.

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