Alumni enabling electives
Emily Morris (Clinical Medicine, 2020, past President of the Richard Doll Society, Nautilus Award winner) and Irene Mathias (Clinical Medicine, 2020) travelled to Toronto, Canada, for medical electives thanks to the support of alumni.
Emily Morris reports
Our elective journey began in August 2022. The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada had announced that for the first time since the pandemic, international students were being allowed to complete an elective in Canada. Excited, we logged on to their elective portal. Suddenly we were faced with a $650 application fee and the potential of a $500 fee per week of a clinical elective. Disheartened by the prohibitive fees of the central system, we relayed the tale to members of our GTC teaching team.
From them we received the brilliant suggestion to get in touch with the Alumni and Development Team. We couldn’t have asked for better help. After an initial enthusiastic meeting with Sophie, we came up with a request for a research elective and the team contacted the alumni network. We were overwhelmed with the subsequent generous response. Within a week we had been given offers from nine different alumni, with an amazing opportunity of a Toronto-based elective from Associate Fellow Professor Richard Canter.
A very warm Teams meeting amidst the August heatwave allowed us to meet his student, Dr Laila Nasser, who was completing a project investigating the demand and clinical utility of an AI-powered virtual triage tool. The project sounded like a great fit for us, so all we had to do was wait until April came around to get started!
After a sunny induction at Sunnybrook hospital, we got started in the Emergency Room. Our aim was to determine how demographic factors impacted a patient’s desire and ability to access virtual triage. Through this project we had the unique opportunity to recruit our own patients, streamline the methodology and complete independent data analysis.
Recruiting over 180 patients by the end of the project, along the way we met people and heard stories from all over the world. Largely following the recommendations of patients, we had a wonderful time getting to know Toronto in our time outside the hospital, enjoying Cirque du Soleil, a sunset tall ships cruise and the Canadian Opera to name a few!
Overall, our elective was an invaluable opportunity to inform our decisions to pursue academic medicine, gain independent research experience and insight into North American healthcare systems.
Medical students often struggle finding financially accessible and academically focused electives, especially in developed countries. We had anticipated a long series of negative or ignored requests ourselves. But thanks to the incredible response from our alumni community, we were given a once-in-a-career opportunity, for which I cannot thank everyone enough for.
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