International Medical Graduates

The IMG Residency Program is unique in Canada (and in the world) in that it is restricted to residency training in family medicine for doctors who trained in countries other than Canada or the U.S. Currently, the positions are open only to IMGs who have been assessed in the BC IMG assessment program. The program is strategically located at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver where clinical assessments for entry to residency programs has been conducted for the past 14 years. This has meant that St Paul's Hospital faculty has unrivalled expertise in the evaluation and teaching of IMGs. The residency program for 12 IMGs in family medicine began in July 2006 and has many similarities with the St. Paul's residency site in that the residents from both programs work together on many rotations and share common purpose and outlook. However, it is also recognised that the IMG resident may have a very different background, undergraduate experience and post graduate training and our residency site has been devised to recognise those characteristics. Faculty has been chosen for their previous exposure to and interest in training IMGs. In the early months of the residency, particular attention will be paid to the individual needs of each resident and many of the academic sessions are devoted to ensuring that the residents become thoroughly immersed in the Canadian medical system. We recognise the maturity of our residents and the rich diversity of experience they bring to Canada. We encourage them to speak of the speak of the medical experience in their country of origin and think that our Canadian trained residents can learn from them about the differing medical systems in the world. This enriches the training for all our residents. The program is organised on a traditional block exposure to the basic specialty areas in the first year along with 3 months of family medicine. Each week , however, the resident is expected to spend a half day with their family practice preceptor to ensure continuity of care. For one month, the resident will work alongside a Canadian trained colleague on the Family Practice Teaching Ward and share the patient care responsibilities. Not all of the rotations will be at St. Paul's Hospital and other hospitals in the lower mainland such as Mount St Joseph, Childrens and Womens and Surrey Memorial will be utilised. In the second year, there will be ample elective time for the resident to pursue areas of particular interest in preparation for practice. In addition to spending time with their preceptor in Vancouver, each resident will be required to spend 2 months in a small town or rural area of BC. This will be good preparation for future practice as the IMGs will have a return of service contract to fulfill and it is anticipated that this will, in most instances, be served in areas outside the big metropolitan areas. We consider this program to be a pioneer in the education and integration of IMGs in Canada. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this residency program will be of great interest to other jurisdictions both in Canada and abroad.

Dr. Taj Baidwan

Site Director

Interational Medical Graduates (IMG) Site

Welcome to the IMG site of the UBC Family Medicine Residency Program, the first fully accredited program for the training of International Medical Graduates in North America. As one of the chief residents for this amazing and of course, challenging residency program, I would like to invite you to take a tour of our exciting program.

Located in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the most beautiful places on earth, our program is based at St. Paul’s Hospital, a unique tertiary centre of excellence and provides up to date and compassionate care to one of the most diverse communities in the world

It is all about dedication that distinguishes our site as an outstanding program in family medicine. We have a dedicated site director who has been involved in training IMGs for the past 20 years, along with a site administrator who has 10 years experience in organizing family medicine residency programs as well as the BC IMG program. Our dedicated residents are phenomenal examples of dedication to their profession.

Being linked to BC Children’s Hospital, BC Women’s Hospital, and numerous community-based clinics, and thanks to our knowledgeable preceptors, our two year journey in family medicine is quite different from what most of us have experienced in our previous medical training.

Our curriculum includes a variety of women’s health topics, children and youth medical conditions and a series of community-based medical issues including addiction, travel and sex related medical conditions on the top of the standard acute hospital care. Each of us has a community family physician as a preceptor and we spend a minimum of 8 months in their practices.

Research and informatics is another field of our thorough curriculum. Continuity of teaching, research, and medical informatics throughout the two years of our training has motivated our residents to apply their learned skills to better research fulfillment.

It is obvious that entering into such a wonderful program is not easy and takes a great deal of perseverance and hard work for the interested applicants, but the privilege is such that all your efforts are amply rewarded.

Chief Residents

Drs. Suzanne Walter & Sayed Subzwari
suzmarierue@hotmail.com
sdsubzwari@hotmail.com