The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada levels the playing field and launches CANPREPP, an online portal where medical students can discover Canadian residency programs
OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 2, 2021 /CNW/ - Building on the success of last year, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) launches the new and improved version of Canada's Portal for Residency Program Promotion (CANPREPP), an online portal where medical students can discover and experience medical residency programs across Canada.
Funded by the CMA Foundation, CANPREPP levels the playing field and gives students the ability, in one place, to access every program, along with providing every medical residency program with the opportunity to connect directly with students. With the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19, students and academic medicine institutions were forced to cancel visiting electives. Face-to-face interaction was a huge loss for both learners and programs alike.
"When students were allowed to travel (to complete an elective) they were better able to see what the program and city were like because they had lived there for several weeks and had interacted with many different physicians in the program. That experience has been lost," explained Dr. Bernard Ho, an emergency medicine resident in Vancouver.
Selecting a residency program is challenging and a significant step in becoming a practicing physician. CANPREPP is the solution that came out of a virtual design sprint hosted early in 2020 to develop a tool for students and residency programs to connect virtually. The sprint team included medical students, residents, program directors and medical school deans from several organizations, including AFMC, the CMA Foundation, and the Canadian Medical Association.
"The AFMC is grateful for funding for the portal from the CMA Foundation and for the support of our partners. By working together, we have been able to deliver a tool that enables students to make informed decisions about their future," says Dr. Geneviève Moineau, President and CEO of the AFMC.
Easier than ever before, CANPREPP's website is user friendly and gives medical learners the ability to browse and sort through programs and events. The national web calendar of events is a centralized calendar of events that lets learners learn more about residency programs across the country. Learners can search the calendar by event type, specialty, or school. Programs will update the calendar as the events become available.
About The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC)
Founded in 1943, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) represents Canada's 17 faculties of medicine and is the voice of academic medicine in this country. AFMC's member faculties graduate over 2,700 MDs per year; teach over 11,500 undergraduate medical students; train over 15,000 postgraduate trainees; employ nearly 48,000 full and part-time faculty members and undertake over 3 billion dollars of biomedical and health care research annually. Go to afmc.ca to learn more. Follow AFMC on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube.
SOURCE Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC)
