With the hope of fostering an attitude of social responsibility to maintain support for the public health care system in Canada, the Student Medical Reform Group (sMRG) at Western has been a successful and outspoken medical student-run advocacy group.
Based in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, the group was founded in response to the growing debate over private and public health care financing and for-profit and not-for-profit health care delivery in Canada.
The sMRG is a chapter of the greater Ontario MRG, a democratic organization comprised of physicians, medical students, and others, founded in 1979 and based on the following three principles:
· health care is a right;
· health is political and social in nature; and
· institutions of the health system must be changed
Our chapter has worked to engage all levels of medical professionals at Western in education and discussion focused on the socio-political nature of health care, and to imbue the medical community with a spirit of intellectual inquiry and social reform.
The sMRG has continued to strive toward rekindling and fostering an attitude of social responsibility that serves to maintain support for the public health care system in Canada. Through involvement with curriculum development and continuing public health care advocacy, we hope to transfer the notion that restructuring the current system with a focus on not-for-profit health care reform strategies is a more beneficial and cost-effective long-term solution to the current issues plaguing Canadian health care.
Time and again, the sMRG has garnered the continued interests of both students and faculty alike, setting a precedent for both caliber and attendance at Western medical student-run events.
With that in mind, and in the spirit of encouraging open and honest evidence-based dialogue on the current state of Canada’s health care system, our focal event this academic year is an invigorating formal debate on the issue of health care financing in Canada.
The Mar. 10 debate will feature two prominent Ontario physicians who will go head-to-head arguing the pros and cons behind the issues of health care funding.
Dr. Gordon Guyatt, who will vie for maintaining our publically financed system, is a professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University. He is well known for his work on ‘evidence-based medicine’, a term that first appeared in a paper he published in 1990.
Since then, Guyatt has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals and written extensively on health care policy.
His ‘opponent’, Dr. Kellie Leitch, is Chair of Paediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario. She serves as Assistant Dean at Schulich and is Director of the Health Sector MBA program at the Ivey School of Business. Leitch was selected as one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” for her work in both medicine and business.
The debate, scheduled for University Hospital (Auditorium A) beginning at 5:30 p.m., will offer others the opportunity to share their thoughts and ask questions on the issue. Schulich Dean Carol Herbert will present opening remarks, with closing remarks by former Dean Robert McMurtry.
If you have any questions on this event, or regarding sMRG, you can email us at mrg@meds.uwo.ca.
Farah Manji and Iva Vukin are students in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry class of 2010. They are co-chairs and co-founders of the Student Medical Reform Group, a medical student-run advocacy group for Canadian Medicare.
Upcoming Debate
Public vs private health care
March 10, 5:30 p.m.,
University Hospital (Auditorium A)
Debaters: Dr. Gordon Guyatt, McMaster University, favours a publicly funded system.
Dr. Kellie Leitch, Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario, points out flaws of the existing system.
Opening remarks by Schulich Dean Carol Herbert; closing remarks by former dean Robert McMurtry.