The Department of Medicine has been home to educators who have had a remarkable and transformational impact on medical education over the past 50 years. John Robert Evans, William Walsh, Bill Spaulding, James Anderson and Fraser Mustard started the first 3 years, problem-based MD Program in the world. Three of these founding fathers were members of the Department of Medicine. Dr. Evans, a Cardiologist was the first Dean of the DeGroote School of Medicine. Dr. Walsh, an Internist had a long and illustrious career at McMaster and served in many leadership positions including Program Director for the Department’s renowned Internal Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Bill Spaulding, also an Internist, is a past Internal Medicine Division Director. David Sackett, a past Division Director of IM established Canada’s first Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Sackett together with Gordon Guyatt, Deborah Cook, Roman Jaeschke and colleagues founded and refined evidence-based medicine, one of the most important movements in medicine in the past 30 years. Gordon Guyatt, a past core IM Residency Program Director, first published the term evidence-based medicine in a single author paper in 1991. Brian Haynes, past member of the Department is the founding editor of the ACP Journal Club.

The Department has continued to introduce education innovation with Case-Based Interactive Learning replacing didactic lecture-based Academic Half Days and the adoption of simulation in Post Graduate medical education. Dr. Akbar Panju, past acting Chair and IM Division Director, continues to lead the now well established McMaster Review Course in IM held annually in Hamilton and Europe. All Divisions have an annual continuing medical education day. In 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Department, Dr. Roman Jaeschke published the first comprehensive textbook of medicine, with contributions from almost 200 McMaster faculty. The book emphasizes practical clinical applications and uses the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system which also has its roots at McMaster.

The Mandate of the Associate Chair (Education) is to promote and facilitate teaching and education scholarship within the Department. The Associate Chair will:

1. Meet with all new recruits (part and full time) based at the main and distributed campuses to review teaching, and educational and clinical scholarship opportunities, and to jointly establish a teaching and educational map for the first 5 years of their appointment.
2. Shepherd faculty members through reappointment and promotion.
3. Review faculty development and continuing education opportunities within the FHS.
4. Promote education leadership opportunities within the FHS and externally, and support faculty members in their pursuit of these positions.
5. Review mentorship and link faculty members with potential mentors.
6. Facilitate collaboration and participation in education research, development of new curriculum and evaluative tools and dissemination of knowledge.
7. Make faculty aware of local and external education funding opportunities and career awards and support them in their applications.
8. Oversee together with Graeme Matheson (AFP analyst and budget manager) and the Associate Chair Research the Department Academic (education component) Contribution Forms.