This course was originally established about 30 years ago within DFCM’s masters degree program. It explores the history and current state of Family Medicine as an academic and community-oriented discipline. Using McWhinney’s Textbook of Family of Medicine (2016) and a series of guest speakers, learners will analyze and evaluate presentations on a variety of social, political and scientific issues in primary care, and in doing so, broaden their understanding of the forces that influence one’s ability to provide quality primary care in Ontario, Canada.

There will be 7 modules involving in-person, interactive seminars and online activities (discussion and reflective activities). The in-person sessions occur approximately every 2 weeks from September to December with the online activities occurring between sessions.

Each in-person seminar is 3 hours in length and broken into a 90-minute student led discussion and analysis of selected chapters from McWhinney’s Texbook of Family Medicine (2016) and a 75 min seminar on selected primary care-oriented topics. There are 21 hours of in-person learning in this course.

For the online activities, learners prepare for and engage in quizzes, 3 online discussion groups and 2 reflective papers deepening learning gained in seminars and applying learned concepts to their own practice and to novel primary care topics.

Freeman, T. (2016). McWhinney’s textbook of family medicine (T. Freeman, Ed.; Fourth edition.). Oxford University Press.