This year marks the 125th anniversary of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. The Faculty has undergone profound changes since its founding in 1887. In fact, the University’s first medical school began operating in 1843, but from 1853 to 1887 did not offer instruction; instead, it administered examinations and conferred medical degrees on students of three other medical schools located in Toronto. Teaching resumed in 1887 and has been continuous in the intervening century and a quarter.
The faculty’s history is a litany of discoveries and “first evers.” In 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best led the team that discovered insulin, one of the signal scientific achievements of the last century. Outside the premises of the university, its graduates have contributed to enormous advances in medicine: Norman Bethune, trained at U of T, famously invented mobile blood transfusions, and revolutionized battlefield medicine in the bargain. Modern cardiac medicine would be impossible without Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, who pioneered open-heart surgery and designed the first electric pacemaker. In 1983, just four years before its centennial, a team of doctors from the Faculty of Medicine performed the first ever single lung transplant. Two years ago, Derek van der Kooy, a U of T researcher, demonstrated one of the first therapeutic applications of stem cell therapy, curing blindness in mice — stem cells were first identified at the University of Toronto in 1961.
The Faculty of Medicine has grown into a large institution, with more than 6,800 faculty providing training to almost 9,000 students. Seventy-six specialized programs are available to doctors training in the faculty, from otolaryngology to gastroenterology. But the faculty doesn’t just graduate MDs: it awards undergraduate degrees, PhDs, MScs, and conducts professional training. This year, its first-ever class of physician assistants graduated from the university. The faculty is partnered with nine fully affiliated teaching and research hospitals. Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto General and Toronto Western are all members of the centrally administered University Health Network, specializing respectively in oncology, cardiology, and neurology and brain surgery. The faculty is home to major research centres and institutes, among them the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, the Institute of Medical Science, and the recently endowed Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.
In conjunction with the University of Toronto’s two billion dollar Boundless fundraising campaign, the faculty has just launched an ambitious, five hundred million dollar drive of its own. Said Catharine Whiteside, current dean, at the launch event: “Our campaign will enable us to continue to attract and retain the best academic talent in the world.” More than half of faculty’s goal has already been raised.