The Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program is designed for students who know they want to become family physicians.

This new, concentrated-training model will develop community-focused family doctors who are specialized in offering comprehensive care to a wide variety of patients. This program differs substantially from the standard MD program in design, curricular delivery, purpose of electives, and freedom from the need for post-graduate residency matching. For these reasons, transfers to other programs, including the standard Queen’s MD Program at the Kingston site, will not be feasible.

Training to purpose, this program will seamlessly integrate the training of medical students through to practice readiness.

Directed toward training in community-based Family Medicine, the program will have several unique features, including:

• A deliberate Family Medicine focus guiding the overall curricular design and delivery.
• Small class size, allowing for individual attention and close connections with faculty and student colleagues.
• A prominent presence of practicing Family Physicians as teachers, curricular leads and student mentors.
• Early and frequent clinical placements intended to introduce students to the practice of Family Medicine in parallel and integrated with their didactic learning and skill development.
• Emphasis on the unique role of Family Physicians in our communities, including professional roles, social accountability, social determinants of health and health care advocacy.
• Orientation to the various clinical profiles available within Family Medicine, including enhanced skill development in topics such as: addictions, anesthesia, care of the elderly, emergency medicine, palliative care, sports medicine and women’s health, including intrapartum obstetrics.

Graduates of the MD portion of this program will be well prepared to enter Family Medicine Residency. Transition to Family Medicine training occurs under the authority and recommendation of the Queen’s Family Medicine Residency Program Committee once post-graduate entry requirements are met, including being eligible for educational license as per the CPSO.

Students can receive an offer from the Post Graduate Family Medicine Training program in year 3, conditional on successfully completing the MD program. Once that offer is accepted students will be able to transition into Queen’s Family Medicine Residency without entering the CaRMS matching process.

Durham region is home to The Queen’s-Bowmanville–Oshawa-Lakeridge (QBOL) Family Medicine Residency, which is 1 of the 4 highly acclaimed Queen’s University Family Medicine Postgraduate Programs sites (the others being Kingston and the Thousand Islands, Belleville-Quinte, Peterborough-Kawartha).

The application process prioritizes candidates with qualities that show their commitment to community and who want to establish a comprehensive family medicine practice. 

• You are fully committed to a career as a family physician as this is a single-career selection program.
• You want to make a difference in the lives of people in your community and create positive social change.
• You value a unique learning opportunity with a dedicated focus on comprehensive family medicine.
• You want to learn in the community, as well as in the classroom, alongside doctors in practice.
• You are adaptable, welcome change, and relish the challenge of a career where you see something different every day.

Applicants to this program must be a Canadian Citizen or a Permanent Resident of Canada at the time of application.