Welcome to the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
Jon Meddings, MD | Dean, Cumming School of Medicine
It's an exciting time for all of us at the University of Calgary as we collectively undertake to become one of the country's top five research universities by 2016. Embarking on my new role as Dean of the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), I am extremely proud to be associated with such an innovative medical school. We are breaking new ground in research and knowledge translation, achieving excellence in education, and constantly striving for improved and progressive patient care.
We are pleased to offer the very highest level of education and training through our undergraduate, medical, and graduate programs. Delivering one of the few three-year Doctor of Medicine degree programs in North America, we are committed to patient-centred learning and hands-on experience early on. If you are considering joining us as a student, a resident, or as a faculty or staff member, I encourage you to explore our programs online.
Our newly focused strategic research priorities reflect the central role of the CSM in the University of Calgary's current research plan. These priorities are: brain and mental health, chronic diseases, and cardiovascular sciences--areas in which we as a school already have recognized leadership, along with the most advanced opportunities to highly integrate our teaching and research efforts. The full breadth of our research will continue to be supported and expressed through all seven of our research institutes. These institutes, a partnership between the faculty, the university, Alberta Health Services, and in some cases philanthropic organizations, provide access to some of the finest and most advanced research facilities in the country – promoting widespread collaboration between scientists and clinicians and ultimately bridging the gap between lab bench and hospital bedside. These values are evidenced by international recognition for programs such as the cardiac electrophysiology and STEMI programs, the inflammatory bowel disease program and the Calgary Stroke Program.
Though we are a large faculty, we are very much a small community in service to a much broader one, and I welcome all ideas and any feedback you may have as we continue to develop and evolve.
Sincerely,
Jon Meddings, MD
Dean, Cumming School of Medicine
University of Calgary
CSM Vision
- Creating the future of health
CSM Mission
We must fulfill our social responsibility to be a school in which the common goal of improved health guides service, education and research. We must foster the collective pursuit of knowledge and its translation, through education and application, to better the human condition.
We must touch the lives of Calgarians through our faculty members and students who work and train in health-care facilities across southern Alberta, and who dedicate themselves to scientific inquiry to improve our health and health-care system. We must understand the needs of our diverse populations and be responsive to the changing health requirements of the Albertans that we serve. As members of the global academic medical community, we must also have an impact far beyond the borders of our campus.
CSM Values
Excellence
Our commitment to give our best—in research, education and care—cannot waver; the lives of Albertans depend on us maintaining this standard of excellence. Achieving excellence at the CSM will be realized as the culmination of the individual successes of our people and groups. Each person in our midst—faculty, staff and students—must commit to the highest standards every day.
Collaboration
The CSM is unusual in its openness and the ease with which groups can come together to create and discover, whether in research, education or models of service provision. We commit to maintaining and rewarding individuals and groups who recognize that academic medicine is a team effort.
Engagement
The 'can-do' attitude of Alberta is at the core of our identity and a feature that has attracted and retained excellent people at the CSM. We actively foster a culture that resists complacency, in which individuals and systems are ready to adopt positive change. We are committed to eliminating organizational obstacles on the path to discovery.
Respect
The CSM values the importance of respect in all interactions, both internal and external to the school. We commit to maintaining an attitude of appreciative inquiry, professionalism and respect in our daily work.
CSM Strategic Goals
We are committed to maintaining the public's trust and respect as a premier academic health science centre by meeting the following goals:
- Serve our diverse communities by understanding and responding to their health needs and by effectively stewarding the resources entrusted to us by Albertans.
- Generate knowledge that has both local and global impact by fostering novel collaborative alignments among basic and clinical scientists, physicians and educators.
- Train the next generation of health-care pioneers and providers by rejuvenating the education and career development of biomedical innovators.
