Discovery Day primes Montreal's youth for a career in health sciences

On Friday, Nov. 28, more than 200 students from 28 high schools across Montreal will spend their day sampling career options at Discovery Day in Health Sciences. This exciting and interactive event is hosted by McGill University ’s Montreal Neurological Institute and the McGill Faculty of Medicine and organized by The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

“We are very excited about the program at McGill this year – we have more than doubled the number of participants and are offering a broad range of workshop topics,” said Janet Tufts, Executive Director of The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. “Results show that Discovery Day participants are more interested, excited and informed about a career in health sciences after attending these one-day events. It’s rewarding to know we are offering a program that is helping to address some of the issues related to Canada ’s critical shortage of health professionals.”

“Discovery Day offers a wonderfully unique occasion for young people to explore the fascinating world of health sciences, while directly contributing to our university mission to prepare the physicians and scientists of tomorrow,” said Dr. Richard I. Levin, McGill’s Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “We are very proud to partner with The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and the MNI to help inspire these students in our community to become the next generation of leaders in health care and discovery.”

Keynote speaker, Dr. Gerald Fried, from the Department of Surgery at the McGill University Health Centre, will kick the day off in McGill’s Chancellor Day Hall with his lecture “The Making of a Surgeon in the Digital Age.” From there, the students will disperse to hands-on workshops delivered by some of Canada ’s brightest scientific minds in their labs, classrooms and hospital settings.

“This is a remarkable opportunity for students across Montreal .The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame should be commended for this important national initiative that allows us to showcase the possibilities and prospects that exist for students to excel and advance science and medicine,” said Dr. David Colman, Director of the MNI.

Students will discover what it is like to enjoy a career in science by choosing two workshops from a total of 15, including the following:

• Growing nerve cells in a dish: how hard can it be? In this workshop, students will culture nerve cells, observe live cells under a microscope and make short films of growing nerves.
• Learning human anatomy for the health sciences , where workshop facilitators will demonstrate, using a human heart, how anatomy is taught.
• Why are these students getting sick? In this workshop, students will take on the role of disease detectives to investigate a disease "outbreak" in the group and formulate hypotheses about the relationship between risk factors and disease.

The day wraps up with a lively career panel discussion where students have the opportunity to ask health care professionals about their work, how they got to where they are today and what drives them to continue.

The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame offers Discovery Days at eight universities and colleges across the country involving over 1,500 students every year.

This program is made possible at no cost to participating students, thanks to the support of national sponsors Pfizer Canada, Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life, and CIHR’s Youth Synapse program.

Media are invited to attend all or part of the day’s activities. Please call one of the media contacts listed below to register. Check-in at the registration desk is as follows:

• From 8 – 10:30 a.m. in the foyer of the Chancellor Day Hall, Room 100, McGill Campus, 3644 Peel Street
• From 10:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the foyer of the Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre, MNI, 3801 University Street

For more information about The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame or the Discovery Days program, visit www.cdnmedhall.org.