Dreamers, Skeptics, and Healers: The Story of Bc's Medical School

When the UBC Faculty of Medicine's first cohort of students arrived in Vancouver in 1950 they discovered a campus located far from the city on the Traditional Territory of the Musqueam people and a medical school composed of four primitive huts. Today, the faculty's undergraduate program is the fourth largest in North America; it has nineteen departments, three schools, and twenty-one research institutes and centres; and its training and residency programs branch out to over eighty campuses, hospitals, and clinics in the province. The faculty has distinguished itself as a world leader in both the science and practice of medicine.

This lavishly illustrated history tells the remarkable story of the school's expansion against all odds. From the moment British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, visions of a campus-based medical school and hospital for the province ran up against fierce resistance from physicians in town and apathy from politicians in the legislature, ensuring that the province would wait eight decades for a school of its own. And once the school was established, dean after dean struggled to push the boundaries of medical research and education while grappling with limited budgets and resources.

Despite these obstacles, the Faculty of Medicine has distinguished itself in countless areas--including cancer, heart and lung, chronic diseases, and population health research--and its members have garnered numerous awards and prizes, including the Nobel, awarded to Michael Smith in 1993. The school's province-wide distributed undergraduate program, launched in 2004 and the first of its kind in Canada, is training a new generation of doctors and bringing health care and education to remote regions and communities throughout the province, from Victoria in the south, to Haida Gwaii in the west, to Fort St. John in the north.

The book marks the celebration of the Faculty of Medicine's seventieth anniversary by bringing to light the story of its triumph in the face of adversity. Enlivened by photos and descriptions of the school's unique and unusual architectural history and its larger-than-life leaders and visionaries, it honours the school's past at a moment when the faculty is positioned to build on its success for the future.