Thank you very much for inviting me here today, Madam Chairperson.
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the internal miscommunication that occurred at Temerty Medicine that caused some delay in my appearance. It is certainly an honour for me to be here today to answer your questions and to speak about medical education and how it contributes to Canada's health care system.
As you have stated, my name is Dr. Patricia Houston. I'm a practising anesthesiologist and critical care physician, and I have done this for over 40 years. I currently practise at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, but I have also had many leadership roles over the course of my career. Currently, as of 2020, I am the vice -dean of medical education at the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine, where I'm a full professor. In this role, I am responsible for the MD program, postgraduate medical education programs, continuing professional development programs, the office of learner affairs and our integrated physician scientist training programs, and, most recently, I took on the oversight of our expansion to our Scarborough campus.
This study topic is important. All Canadians want a health care system that has the capacity and the resilience to meet the needs of our patients, our families and our communities. The University of Toronto has a long history of leadership in medical education. We are the largest single contributor to practising physicians, representing over 20% of newly trained Canadian doctors who graduated into practice in 2024.
Medical education is a long, complicated and complex process, so with your indulgence, I would like to outline the journey very quickly. I apologize in advance to my physician colleagues who are members of this committee and are very familiar with this, but I think it is important context.
After completing an MD program, whether it be at U of T, another Canadian medical school or an international medical school, all learners must go on to the second part of their education: postgraduate training, which most people know as medical residency. The reason it's called the residency is in the very old days, even before my time, these trainees actually lived in the hospital and thus were called residents. Residency training can range from two years for family medicine to over seven years for programs such as neurosurgery.
The number of provincially funded residency positions is determined by the province in collaboration with the educational institutions and our health care partners. Temerty Medicine trains physicians across more than 80 accredited postgraduate specialty, subspecialty and family medicine programs. Our family medicine program is one of the largest in the world: In 2024, 32% of newly graduated family doctors who trained in Ontario and went into practice in Ontario graduated from the University of Toronto.
We also have internationally trained physicians who enter the health workforce in Canada through one of three pathways.
First, there are international medical graduates, or IMGs, who have Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status. These learners have gone abroad to complete medical school and have returned home to complete their residency requirements. They must go through the CaRMS R1 PGY1 match process and they are eligible for our publicly funded residency positions across Canada.
Second, there are internationally trained physicians who are fully certified to practise. They have completed both undergraduate and postgraduate education. If they satisfy immigration and licensing requirements to practise, they enter practice in Canada.
The third pathway, which I think is what you want to speak about today, is for internationally funded trainees. Canada is known around the world for its high-calibre medical education system. By design, we have created spaces for internationally trained doctors who are funded to come to Canada temporarily to train and then return home, and most are funded by governments or institutions. We train both residents and fellows who go on to a subspecialty, which is very specialized training, after their residency.
We at Temerty Medicine are proud to serve Canadians and the Canadian health care system. I welcome any questions you might have about the work that we do.
