First Dean of the Northern Ontario Medical School Sudbury Campus

News

CJEM 2003;5(2):137

Tim Allen has been named the first Campus Dean of the Northern Ontario Medical School (NOMS) in Sudbury. NOMS is the first new Canadian medical school to be created in a generation and is a joint venture between Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. There will also be a Campus Dean in Thunder Bay. Both Campus Deans will work closely with the Founding Dean, Roger Strasser, a world renowned leader in medical education, to guide NOMS at this exciting stage of its development.

Dr. Tim Allen, Campus Dean, Northeast, of the Northern Ontario Medical School

Courtesy, The MI Letter

Tim is best known to CAEP members for his numerous contributions to the continuing medical education of emergency physicians. He pioneered CAEP CME with the first Roadshow, "Recognition and management of acute myocardial infarction." Tim presented this program with Eric Letovsky across English Canada and also en français throughout Quebec, reaching over 45 communities of emergency and family physicians over a 7-year period. As Chair of the CAEP CME Committee since 1996, Tim has been instrumental in developing several high quality national educational workshops for emergency physicians. Tim is also one of our Associate Editors at CJEM, responsible for the section on Education.

Born in England, Tim spent some of his childhood in Sudbury, where he attended public school. He completed his undergraduate university and medical training at the University of Toronto. This was followed by a rotating internship at Hotel-Dieu Hospital in Quebec City and a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, completed in 1973. A man of letters, Tim obtained certification with DABEM in 1983, MCFP(EM) in 1983, FRCPC in 1986 and CSPQ in 2000.

Tim has been a full professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University since 1997. At Laval, he was the founding director of the Section of Emergency Medicine (1985), the CCFP(EM) residency program (1989) and the FRCPC residency program (1999). Tim has been an examiner in Emergency Medicine for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and is currently chief examiner in Emergency Medicine for the Quebec College of Physicians. He was chairman of the board of examiners for the Medical Council of Canada in 1993-95.

Tim's academic passion has been medical education. In 1997 he received the CFPC Award for Research and Development to study the assessment of competence in Emergency Medicine. In 1999 he was awarded the Royal College Fellowship for Studies in Medical Education, which allowed him to take a Master's degree in Education, studying the effect of formative evaluation on clinical reasoning skills.

As Campus Dean, Northeast, of the Northern Ontario Medical School, Tim now has the opportunity to return to his childhood roots and share in the excitement of creating a new medical education program for new medical students in a new medical school. In Tim Allen, NOMS has chosen an excellent role model for a future generation of physicians.

Tim, from your many friends and many, many former students across the country, we wish you hearty congratulations and best wishes.

Garth Dickinson, MD
Senior Associate Editor, CJEM
Courtesy, The MI Letter