TORONTO, ON—Elderly people taking anti-hypertensive drugs are at a 43 per cent increased risk of having a hip fracture in the first 45 days of treatment, according to research conducted by family medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Debra Butt. A member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and a family physician affiliated with The Scarborough Hospital, Dr. Butt’s study was published on November 19, 2012 in Archives of Internal Medicine. The study examined data from health care administrative databases in Ontario, looking at records from 2000 to 2009 for community-dwelling hypertensive patients with a mean age of 80.8 years.
There are serious consequences to a hip fracture for the elderly. In the first year of a hip fracture there is a higher mortality rate than is seen for many chronic diseases. Those who recover often lose their independence due to reduced mobility, which can result in depression and overall decreased quality of life.

By acting on findings of this study, elderly Canadian patients and their physicians can take steps to manage the increased risk of hip fractures from newly-prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs. Patients are prescribed these drugs to treat hypertension (high blood pressure), and the drugs are shown to help prevent strokes and heart attacks. One side effect is a sudden drop in blood pressure, such as those that occur during sudden upright movement or change of position, which can cause dizziness or weakness. In the elderly, a sudden drop in blood pressure can contribute to falls, which is the main underlying cause of 90 per cent of hip fractures.

“It’s important for patients to be educated on the potential risk of a hip fracture when they start an anti-hypertensive drug. They should be cautious; if they experience dizziness or weakness, they need to let their doctor know, and should not engage in activities that would put them at risk of falling. For example, if you start your anti-hypertensive drug before bed and get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, be careful, you could be dizzy,” says Dr. Butt.

Prior to this study there was no real evidence that taking an anti-hypertensive drug could cause increased serious fall-related injuries among the elderly through their effect on blood pressure. The study adds the anti-hypertensive class of drugs to the list of other psychotropic drugs that have similar side effects on drug initiation, such as anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Dr. Butt cautions that these findings are not a reason to stop taking anti-hypertensive drugs.

“We are not saying don’t take these drugs; they are proven to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks. Just be cautious when starting them,” says Dr. Butt.

For more information, please contact:

Danielle Wintrip
Communications Coordinator
Department of Family and Community Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
416-978-8793
Danielle.Simpson@utoronto.ca

Research Points to New Hope For Heart Attack Patients

TORONTO — People recovering from heart attacks are being given new hope this month with the release of a new study on stem cells taken from human umbilical cord tissue.

Mesenchymal cells — which stimulate tissue repair, control inflammation and are used in stem cell therapies — are most commonly harvested from bone marrow.

But the new study shows that, when injected directly into damaged heart tissue, stem cells from the tissues surrounding the blood vessels of the human umbilical cord are superior to existing bone marrow stem cell therapies.

The study used standard tests to measure heart function after the new therapy was administered. The new cell therapy was twice as effective at repairing damage to heart tissue than no treatment, even up to a year later.

"We're hoping that this translates into fewer people developing complications of heart failure because their muscle function after a heart attack is better," said Professor Armand Keating, Professor of Medicine, Director, Division of Hematology and Epstein Chair in Cell Therapy and Transplantation, cross-appointed to the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME).

Keating, who is also the Director of the Cell Therapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University Health Network, released the results of the study in Cell Transplantation this month.

Keating and his team are completing more pre-clinical studies, and hope to begin clinical trials of the umbilical cord tissue cells on patients within 12-18 months.

But Professor Keating is also interested in conducting further research to find ways to overcome the damaging effects of chemotherapy on heart tissue — an agonizing problem for some patients who may be cured of their cancer only to confront heart failure as a result of treatment.

There are more than 250 clinical trials being conducted worldwide using mesenchymal cells to investigate the treatment of a variety of diseases, including a serious complication of bone marrow transplantation called graft-versus-host disease, autoimmune disorders, neurological diseases and tissue injury arising from lung and liver disease.

Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics (TRT), the Toronto-based company that created the technology platform for manufacturing the cells, provides umbilical cord tissue cells to leading researchers around the world free of charge.  However other companies or manufacturers can buy the cells for research — which supports Canadian high tech jobs.

"We have a comprehensive family of international patents to protect this important cell source," says IBBME Professor J.E. Davies, and President of TRT. A pioneer in this relatively new field, Davies filed his first patent on the technology in 2003.

U of T researchers help discover genetic mutation linked to disease

 An international research team including scientists from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine has discovered a link between a mutation in an immune system gene and Alzheimer’s disease.

Using data from 25,000 people, researchers from the Faculty of Medicine [http://medicine.utoronto.ca/] and University College London’s Institute of Neurology discovered that a rare genetic mutation in the TREM2 gene — which helps trigger immune system responses — is also associated with increased risk of Alzheimer’s.  The discovery supports an emerging theory about the role of the immune system in the disease. 

“This discovery provides an increasingly firm link between brain inflammation and increased risk for Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop, director of U of T’s Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. “This is an important step towards unraveling the hidden causes of this disease, so that we can develop treatments and interventions to end one of the 21st century’s most significant health challenges.”

St George-Hyslop, renowned for identifying five genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, says the breakthrough is, “another win for U of T scientists who are building on a worldwide legacy of expertise in neurodegenerative research.”

The team began by sequencing the genes of 1,092 people with Alzheimer’s and a control group of 1,107 healthy people. The results showed several mutations in the TREM2 gene occurred more frequently in people who had the disease than in those without the disease. One mutation – known as R47H – had a particularly strong association with the disease.

The mutation makes a patient three times more likely to develop the disease, although it affects just 0.3 per cent of the population.

“While the genetic mutation we found is extremely rare, its effect on the immune system is a strong indicator that this system may be a key player in the disease,” says Dr. Rita Geurreiro from UCL, the study’s lead author.

The study is published now in the New England Journal of Medicine.

TORONTO – Medical use of probiotics can significantly minimize C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) infection among hospitalized patients taking antibiotics, according to a research team that included University of Toronto scientists. The study was recently published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Professor Bradley Johnston (Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation) and researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and McMaster University compiled findings from 20 randomized controlled trials including a total of 3818 patients. The trials tracked rates of probiotic use in inpatients and outpatients who were receiving antibiotics, and analyzed rates of diarrheal illness associated with C. difficile among the groups.

Overall, use of probiotics reduced the new cases of C. difficile-associated diarrhea by two thirds (66 per cent), with no serious adverse events attributable to probiotics.

“Probiotics are not a magic bullet, but these results suggest that therapeutic probiotic agents, as well as some yogurts and probiotic dairy products, may be vastly under-used in some nursing homes and hospitals,” says Johnston, who is a Scientist and Clinical Epidemiologist at SickKids.

The risk of serious C. difficile infection appears primarily among older hospitalized adults who are exposed to antibiotics.

Up to half of all diarrheal illness in hospital is associated with this infection, which is a significant cause of illness and death in hospitalized adults. From 2009-2011 the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care tracked 75 outbreaks in 47 hospitals.

“Minimizing or even preventing C. difficile among vulnerable patients is a high priority for making every hospital as safe as possible. It’s an important public health issue,” adds Johnston.

Because immunocompromised and debilitated children are potentially at risk of systemic infection from probiotics, more research is needed regarding application of these results to children.

“Although this study found no serious adverse events among the populations studied, we need further research into the significance of the results and the safety and efficacy of probiotics in children, notably those with weakened immune systems,” says Professor Upton Allen (Department of Paediatrics and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation), Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Senior Associate Scientist at SickKids.

Probiotic powder and capsules as well as yogurt were included in the studies analyzed. “The results appeared to be even more pronounced when several probiotic organisms were used together,” says Johnston.

When broad-spectrum antibiotics are prescribed to treat and prevent infections the medications can also destroy necessary bacteria in the colon. Probiotics help to reintroduce healthy bacteria. “That’s why probiotics could be an effective, safe and relatively inexpensive approach to prevent C. difficile-associated diarrheal illness in adult patients whose immune systems are not compromised,” adds Johnston.

For more information, please contact:

Polly Thompson
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
416-813-7654 ext. 2059; polly.thompson@sickkids.ca

Matet Nebres
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
416-813-6380; matet.nebres@sickkids.ca

Veronica McGuire
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
905-525-9140 ext . 22169; vmcguir@mcmaster.ca

An international, clinical research trial has shown that patients with diabetes whose multi-vessel coronary artery disease is treated with bypass surgery live longer and are less likely to suffer severe complications like heart attacks than those who undergo angioplasty.

The findings are published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine (10.1056/NEJMoa1211585). The study – co-led by researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital and Toronto’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network (UHN) – is known as the FREEDOM trial.

“We’ve shown that bypass surgery saves one extra life for every 20 patients with diabetes who are treated for multi-vessel coronary artery disease,” says lead author, Dr. Michael Farkouh, associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Chair of the Peter Munk Centre of Excellence in Multinational Clinical Trials, UHN.

Five years after treatment, patients who received coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) had lower combined rates of strokes, heart attacks, and deaths (18.7 percent) than those who underwent angioplasty (26.6 percent). Strokes were slightly more common among the CABG group (5.2 percent) than in the angioplasty group (2.4 percent), however, more angioplasty patients died from any cause (16.3 percent) than CABG patients (10.9 percent).

“Based on these results, we believe that coronary artery bypass surgery should be standard therapy for the millions of patients worldwide with diabetes who have more than one diseased vessel,” says Dr. Farkouh.

Coronary artery disease is the buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries. It’s the most common form of heart disease and can lead to chest pain, heart failure and heart attack. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, almost 2.4 million Canadians live with diabetes.1

A total of 1,900 patients were enrolled at 140 international centers from 2005-2010. All participants had diabetes and more than one diseased artery, and 83% had three-vessel disease. Half the participants received bypass surgery and the other group received angioplasty – which includes percutaneous coronary intervention and drug-eluting stents. The study followed patients for a median of four years and a minimum of two. Patients in both streams of the study were prescribed optimal medical management for control of high LDL cholesterol, high blood sugar levels and high blood pressure. The result assessed all-cause mortality, non-fatal heart attacks, and non-fatal stroke.

“This study will challenge the prevailing ambiguity between bypass surgery and angioplasty for multi-vessel coronary artery disease,” says Dr. Farkouh. “Bypass surgery saves lives and reduces the chance of complications in a high-risk group of patients with diabetes.”

The study focused on diabetes because patients with diabetes have cardiac events more often than patients who do not have diabetes, and require more follow-up care than other patients. Cardiovascular disease is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of early death among people with this disease — about 65 percent of people with diabetes die from heart disease and stroke. Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or suffer a stroke than people without diabetes.

“The benefits of bypass surgery are so significant that they’re what you’d expect to see between a patient who is and a patient who isn’t taking medication to control cholesterol,” says Dr. Farkouh.

The research was supported by U01 grants #01HL071988 and #01HL092989 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute with provision of stents from Cordis, Johnson and Johnson and Boston Scientific, provision of abciximab and an unrestricted research grant from Eli Lilly and provision of clopidogrel from Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. Farkouh’s research is also supported by Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre campaign.
 

What are the best ways to promote literacy in children? Trelani Milburn, as an early literacy specialist who taught parents and preschool teachers, answered that question many times.

During nine years of community work in Southern Ontario, Milburn used techniques such as face-to-face interaction with infants and linking stories to events in children’s lives when reading to them. But she sometimes had trouble answering another question: “What evidence supports the advice I’m giving?”

This second question inspired Milburn to go back to school in 2007, more than twenty years after she first became a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She finished an undergraduate program part-time, then upgraded it to an Honours degree in psycholinguistics. She started graduate school the day her youngest child began his undergraduate program.

Milburn is now a third-year PhD student in the Child Language Lab run by Luigi Girolametto, a Professor in the Department of Speech Language Pathology. She studies emergent literacy — the foundational skills that enable children to begin to read and write — such as vocabulary, storytelling, and letter and sound recognition.

She no longer wonders what evidence informs child literacy — she creates it.

“There is a delicate interplay between children and adults. If we can better measure what works, we can improve the literacy of all children, and intervene more effectively to help those at risk of falling behind,” says Milburn.

“Shared reading” is one way adults can build literacy in all kids, while limiting risk for those who face major learning challenges. Parents and teachers can learn to engage children in conversation with open questions and responsive statements, rather than reading books cover-to-cover. This interaction can enhance a child’s understanding of and ability to use language.

But there is not a lot of evidence that shows exactly why, or how well, shared reading works.

Milburn and her colleagues recently developed a system to measure shared reading, and to show whether it increases conversation between kids and adults. They divided educators  into two groups, and trained one group in shared-reading techniques. Then they video-recorded the educators reading to their kids, and tracked the number of open questions, variety of words and “turns” in each conversation.

“I can say emphatically that professional development changed the educators’ interactions with children,” says Milburn, the lead author on the study, which will appear in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. “We saw a statistically significant difference between the groups in a naturalistic context, and because of the strength of the study design — this was a randomized, controlled study — we’re confident the results will translate to other classrooms.”

Girolametto has helped move several findings from the Child Language Lab into the classroom, through long-standing relationships with community organizations. For eight years, he worked at the Hanen Centre, which educates thousands of parents, educators, and speech language pathologists around the world. “It often takes a decade or more for research to change real-world practices,” says Girolametto. “But the Hanen Centre can disseminate new knowledge as we create it and improve literacy practices right away.”

Girolametto says Milburn is also well-positioned to make an impact on the lives of children, given the professional relationships she built before returning to school. And, she is still asking questions. “Trelani has a very curious mind,” he says. “It’s what led her back to school, and keeps her asking fresh questions of the data, which is great for our lab.”

More than 300 students, benefactors, volunteers, faculty, staff and members of the medical community gathered at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research on Thursday evening to celebrate the launch of the $500-million campaign for U of T’s Faculty of Medicine,  a cornerstone of the University’s overall $2-billion Boundless campaign. Through its campaign, the Faculty of Medicine aims to transform health care by training future health care leaders and putting scientific discovery into action.

Dean Catharine Whiteside announced that the campaign – the largest-ever fundraising initiative for a medical school in Canadian history – has already secured $252 million, more than half of its campaign goal.

In her address, Dean Whiteside spoke about the central role that charitable giving and philanthropic efforts play in advancing the Faculty’s research and education objectives and acknowledged the generous support of individuals like Michael Dan (Chair of the Campaign Cabinet), Terrence Donnelly, Carlo Fidani, Paul Dalla Lana, Mark and Stuart Tanz, and the Eaton family, who have made transformative gifts to the Faculty of Medicine.

“The complexity of the health challenges we face today requires solutions that can only emerge through innovation that is collaborative and cross-disciplinary,” said Whiteside. “The Faculty of Medicine’s integrating role uniquely positions us to spark the discoveries and drive the changes that will transform health globally in the 21st century, with the help of our supporters.”

The Faculty of Medicine’s academic network is vast. In partnership with nine fully affiliated health institutions and 18 community affiliates, the Faculty’s 6,800 academic and clinical faculty members educate more than 8,600 trainees annually, including MD students, graduate and doctoral students, health sciences professionals, residents and fellows. To ensure these trainees have continued access to world-class opportunities, the Faculty will seek to raise $100 million for student programming and financial aid.

“Students in the Faculty of Medicine will become the next generation of health professionals and leaders. They inspire me to be confident in the future of health care in Canada and around the world,” said Dr. Terrence Donnelly, a generous supporter of the faculty and chair of recruitment for the campaign.

Recent MD graduates Jeffrey Alfonsi and Joshua Levitz spoke of the significant role donor’s play in students’ lives. “Your generosity and work on behalf of the Faculty does not go unnoticed by students,” Alfonsi stated, “I can personally attest how important donor support is to the success of U of T Medicine students.”

Research in the Faculty of Medicine boasts a critical mass of expertise in four areas, reflected in the campaign’s strategic priorities: human development, global health, neuroscience and brain health, and complex diseases. To provide the Faculty’s scientists with leading-edge research technology, the campaign will seek to raise $200 million for research programs and infrastructure.

Recruiting and retaining world-leading faculty is also a top priority for the campaign, which aims to raise $200 million to support faculty. “Our campaign will enable us to continue to attract and retain the best academic talent in the world,” said Whiteside.

The campaign for U of T Medicine is an integral part of U of T’s $2-billion Boundless campaign, which has secured more than $1.1 billion to date. Through the Boundless campaign, U of T seeks to address the pressing global challenges that affect us all by preparing global leaders who have the skills to work across borders, boundaries and disciplines.

President David Naylor concluded the evening by calling on “our friends and supporters to rally behind two great causes – preparing the next generation of health professionals and researchers, and advancing the legacy of cutting-edge research by our faculty members and students. Together we can help make possible a longer, better life for individuals and communities, in Canada and around the world.”

Related Photo Gallery

September 12, 2012
Boundless Impact Campaign Launch 2012 [http://medicine.utoronto.ca/gallery/boundless-impact-campaign-launch-2012]
Description:

On September 13 2012, the Faculty of Medicine launched a $500-million fundraising effort aimed at improving health in Canada and around the world. Here are some photos from the event.

[IMAGE: http://medicine.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/cover.jpg]

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Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 18:00 to 20:00
Launch of the Campaign for the Faculty of Medicine [http://medicine.utoronto.ca/event/launch-campaign-faculty-medicine]
Location:
160 College Street
Description: WHO: Dr. Catharine Whiteside, Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Vice-Provost Relations with Health Care Institutions, to host benefactors, volunteers, faculty and students
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Boundless Impact

Description:

On September 13, 2012, the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine launched a $500-million fundraising effort aimed at improving health in Canada and around the world.
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U of T Medicine Dean Catharine Whiteside at Boundless Impact Launch

Description:

More than 300 guests gathered at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research on September 13, 2012 to launch a $500-million campaign for U of T's Faculty of Medicine.
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Faculty of Medicine-Boundless

Prenatal treatment for depression does not increase a child’s risk of lower IQ or increased behavioural problems from birth through age six, says research published by Professor Irena Nulman.

"This will give women confidence that treating depression during pregnancy is the best choice for both mother and child,” said Nulman.

In a study published today in American Journal of Psychiatry, Nulman compared behaviour and IQ of four groups of children to age six years and eleven months, based on their mothers’ prenatal medical profile. The four groups comprised: mothers with no maternal depression, mothers with untreated maternal depression, mothers with maternal depression treated with SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), and mothers with maternal depression treated with venlafaxine.

“This answers a question that women who are diagnosed with depression often ask: ‘Is it safe for me to take antidepressants during pregnancy?’ ” said Nulman. “Health care professionals can reassure women that treatment with SSRIs or venlafaxine does not pose additional risk to the unborn child’s future mental health or IQ."

Nulman is a professor of paediatrics at the University of Toronto and associate director of the Motherisk Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). She specializes in the effects of prenatal exposure to medications and toxins on children’s neurocognitive development.

The length of prenatal treatment also did not make any difference in the child’s later behaviour or IQ, said Nulman.

“Our outcomes show that there is no rationale for women to stop taking antidepressants part-way through pregnancy,” Nulman said, adding maternal depression is itself an important risk factor for post-natal depression after childbirth, which “can have tragic consequences for the woman, her baby, and her family if it is not treated."

The women in all four groups entered the study through their calls to Motherisk, an information and educational service for pregnant women and their health professionals.

The study also found that the children of women who were depressed during pregnancy were at moderately elevated risk of behavioural problems through age six compared to children of healthy mothers, regardless of whether the mothers with depression had been treated during pregnancy or not.

“It’s important to understand that this moderate risk is associated with the depression itself, not with treatment,” said Nulman.

The study is the first to compare IQ of children of mothers who were untreated, treated (with the two medication classes), or healthy.

The predictors for IQ in all groups were the child’s sex and the mother’s IQ.

“This aligns with IQ predictors in the general population,” said Nulman.

The next phase of research could compare behaviour and IQ between two siblings of depressed mothers who took medication in one pregnancy and not in the other, Nulman said.

Funding for this research was provided by SickKids Foundation and Wyeth-Ayerst Canada.

U of T Medicine Dean embarks on second health and biomedical academic mission to China

Dean strengthens academic ties with growing universities

Tomorrow, U of T Medicine Dean, Catharine Whiteside, will lead a week-long health and biomedical academic mission in China to strengthen existing academic partnerships with universities in Beijing and Hong Kong and with China’s health ministry. It is her second trip to China to explore the country’s educational, cultural and medical needs and determine how U of T Medicine’s leadership can help improve health in both countries.

The mission begins Monday in Beijing where the Dean will spend two days with leaders from Peking Union Medical College, one of China’s leading medical schools, Capital Medical University, China’s national training centre for general practice, and China’s Ministry of Health, to discuss cooperative opportunities to improve training for family and community physicians in China.

“The University of Toronto has a global brand that’s well known and we remain at the forefront of medical research and education.  At the same time, higher education is becoming more and more globally competitive. Therefore, U of T is building strategic partnerships with excellent international institutions in rapidly developing countries like China to advance and apply knowledge in global health,” says Dean Whiteside.

Dean Whiteside will join Lynn Wilson, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Howard Hu, Director of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Alison Buchan, Vice-Dean of Research & International Relations, who are wrapping up a research conference and family medicine education meetings in Shanghai. The team will meet with Chinese university leaders, government officials and Canadian partners to discuss partnership opportunities for students and faculty.

On Wednesday, the team will travel to Hong Kong to meet leaders from the University of Hong Kong to discuss opportunities that build on the institutions’ relationship and further the success of the joint graduate training program in biomedical sciences research.

QUICK FACTS:

•  Over 3,700 of U of T undergraduate students and over 400 graduate students come from China, more than any other country.
•  China is the leading destination for U of T student exchange opportunities.
•  There are close to 10,000 U of T alumni in China.
•  U of T has more than 20 cooperation agreements with Chinese institutions.
•  Norman Bethune, a U of T physician and medical innovator, is a household name in China after Chinese leaders published an essay outlining Bethune’s selflessness in 1939 that became required reading for elementary school students in the 1960s.

LEARN MORE:

    Watch a video about the impact being made by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine
    View an interactive Google Map illustrating the origins of first-year undergraduates

For more information, please contact:

Faculty of Medicine communications
416-978-7752
medicine.communications@utoronto.ca

News release

U of T is helping build Family Medicine in China

Beijing medical schools seek help filling a chronic shortage of family doctors

Today, Catharine Whiteside, Dean of the U of T’s Faculty of Medicine and Lynn Wilson, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and other members of the faculty’s delegation met with leaders from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) and Capital Medical University (CMU) to explore partnerships in family medicine in Beijing.

In Canada, 51% of all physicians are involved in delivering primary care.  In China, only 3% of all physicians are family doctors – a situation that strains the Chinese health care system generally, and hospitals in particular.  To help remedy this, the Chinese government wants to train 100,000 family physicians by 2020.

“Developing an effective primary care system in China will not only help improve the health of people and their communities, it would also allow China to sustain and enhance its economic growth. We’re helping select Chinese universities build capacity in primary care practice and education by sharing our department’s innovations — such as our academic family health teams,” says Professor Wilson.

U of T Medicine has the largest Family Medicine training program in North America and trains more than one-third of all family physicians in Ontario.  We also have expertise in addressing the policy challenges and other barriers that get in the way of a strong primary care system. PUMC and CMU are looking to tap into that expertise by building on existing partnerships with U of T.

Future agreements could see Chinese government and university officials harness the Faculty’s strengths — transforming China’s health agenda with specific focus on primary care, health systems and administration and chronic and infectious disease prevention.

QUICK FACTS:
• The U of T’s Department of Family and Community Medicine is North America’s largest Department of Family Medicine.
• The department has over 1200 faculty, 400 postgraduate trainees, 259 clinical clerks, 26 funded researchers and a broad array of fellows and elective students.
• PUMC has 5,000 students and CMU and its affiliates have 9,000 students

LEARN MORE:
• Watch a video about the impact being made by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine
• See what programs are offered by The Department of Family and Community Medicine

For more information, please contact:
Faculty of Medicine communications
416-978-7752
medicine.communications@utoronto.ca