Medical Biochemistry

The residency training program in medical biochemistry at McGill University is coordinated between the Divisions of Medical Biochemistry at the five teaching hospitals (i.e., RVH, MGH, JGH, MCH and St. Mary's) and with the Programme Réseau en Biochimie Médicale in the Province of Quebec.

Contacts in Medical Biochemistry:

Dr E. MacNamara, SMBD-Jewish General Hospital, Program Director
Dr F. Parente, Montreal Children's Hospital
Dr J. Shuster, Montreal General Hospital
Dr D. Blank, Royal Victoria Hospital
Dr J. St-Cyr, St. Mary's Hospital

The Programme Réseau en Biochimie Médicale was established in 1988 to coordinate the admission of residents and the requirements of the teaching program. This organization is based at the Université Laval and has been approved by the Royal College and by the Collège des Médecins du Québec. Applicants usually enter the program at the PGY-1 level via CaRMS.

Program Curriculum:

Medical biochemistry is a specialty that deals with laboratory, clinical and biochemical aspects of health and illness in adults and children. The medical biochemist is called to manage the activities of a biochemistry laboratory in hospitals and is a consultant to his colleagues in other specialties relating to aspects of the interpretation of the biochemical tests to the investigation and management of patients. He is also a clinician who can work in various areas, including cardio-metabolic prevention, clinical nutrition, clinical toxicology, inborn errors of metabolism, etc.

The McGill program in Medical Biochemistry is part of the larger Programme Réseau which covers all medical biochemistry programs in Québec. It has the advantage of the resident being able to exploit the resources of all four universities and their affiliated teaching hospitals. The first three years are dedicated to Internal Medicine, and the last two years are dedicated to training in a Medical Biochemistry laboratory.

Duration of the program:

The program requires 5 years to complete. The first three years are clinical (apart from the laboratory requirements/electives) and the last two years are given over to training in the medical biochemistry laboratory.

Clinical Practice – First three years (R1, R2 and R3) – 36 periods

• During the first three years the resident must do a minimum of two mandatory electives per year in Medical Biochemistry or 6 periods during the first 3 clinical years.
• All other electives must be approved by the Medical Biochemistry Program Director and be relevant to the Specialty. The following fields are strongly encouraged: Lipidology, Genetics, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Epidemiology and Nutrition.

Practice of laboratory - (R4, R5) - 24 periods

• In the fourth year, the resident must spend all 12 periods in acquiring the general laboratory knowledge needed in order to be capable of practicing Medical Biochemistry; including theory and practice of the methodologies of biochemistry laboratories, the analysis and the interpretation of biochemistry tests, quality assurance, the epidemiological and statistical principles of analysis applied to the laboratory, and the organization and the supervision of the clinical laboratory.
• In the fifth year a minimum of 6 periods are spent in training within a specialized laboratory of medical biochemistry, such as pediatrics, toxicology, pharmacology, genetic biochemistry, proteomics, and molecular genetics.
• A minimum of 2 periods will be dedicated to specialized clinical training, such as clinical nutrition, clinical toxicology, metabolic medicine and cardiovascular prevention.
• A minimum of one month must be dedicated to research. This can be achieved by participating in the development of a research protocol, evaluation of the practice implicating medical biochemistry, in quality assurance or in certain ethical aspects of practice, …

Teaching:

Teaching sessions are provided to the residents re: analytical principles of instrumentation as well as the physiopathology and the interpretation of analyses. Every resident must have appropriate training in biostatistics, computer science and in management. The resident is expected to develop an expertise in teaching colleagues, junior residents, medical students and technologists.

Presentation:

• In the course of his/her training, the resident is also required to prepare and present various projects and presentations before an audience, for example, during a regional, national or international scientific meeting.

Training Sites:   Affiliated hospital complexes which collaborate on program are the CHUQ, CHAUQ,  CHUM, CHUS, CUSM, Jewish General Hospital, Institute of Cardiology of Montreal, St-Mary’s Hospital

For further information please contact:

Dr Elizabeth MacNamara
Department of Diagnostic Medicine
Jewish General Hospital
3755 Cote St. Catherine Road
Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2
Tel: (514) 340-8222, ext. 5091
Fax: (514) 340-7524
E-mail: rmaizen@lab.jgh.mcgill.ca
           jtrevis@lab.jgh.mcgill.ca

For application information please consult the web site at www.medicine.mcgill.ca/postgrad/admission.htm