A $1.2 million gift from the Walker Wood Foundation will create a significant new award for Dalhousie medical students who pursue a residency in rural family medicine.

By Jodi Reid

Starting in 2024, two graduating MD students will each receive a James Walker Wood, MD, Award in Medicine valued at $100,000 – the largest ever individual prize for MD graduates at Dal’s Faculty of Medicine. Recipients must be entering a Family Medicine Residency at Dalhousie in a rural or remote area in the Maritimes. The award will recognize outstanding graduates who have been involved in relevant extracurricular and leadership activities and who faced financial need during their medical degree.

“We are very grateful to the Walker Wood Foundation for establishing this truly exceptional award,” says Dr. David Anderson (MD’83), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. “It will make an enormous difference in the lives of the award recipients and shine a very positive light on the practice of family medicine, which will ultimately have a beneficial impact on the health of the communities we serve – especially rural communities.”

The family medicine challenge

There has been an alarming decline nationally in the number of medical learners who choose family medicine as their first option for residency. In 2023, 268 family medicine spots went unfilled nationally – many in rural areas.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Family Medicine, Dal has enjoyed comparative success in matching medical learners to its family medicine residency spots. However, with overall shortages of family physicians throughout the country, efforts are ongoing to keep family physicians in the Maritimes.

A key factor deterring students from choosing family medicine are financial concerns. These include significant debt load, the costs associated with establishing a family medicine practice, and the lower salary family physicians earn relative to other medical specialties. The James Walker Wood Award will help address these financial considerations.

“Being a family physician is an exciting, dynamic and personally the most rewarding career I could have chosen,” says Dr. Katherine Stringer, Head of the Dalhousie Department of Family Medicine (pictured above announcing the award). “We are so thankful for this very generous gift – it will be a tremendous help in our efforts to promote family medicine as a sought-after career choice. The Walker Wood Foundation’s support reinforces the value our discipline brings to Maritime communities.”

A legacy of giving

Born in 1889 into a family of modest means in Scotland, James Walker Wood excelled at school and was awarded a life-changing scholarship from the Carnegie Foundation to attend medical school at the University of Aberdeen. Immediately following his graduation, he served as a medical officer on the Western Front throughout World War I. After the war, he established a family practice in a poor working-class area in Leeds, Yorkshire, where he provided exceptional care for the local population in an office attached to his family home. He served his patients diligently and without complaint until his passing in 1968.

To commemorate James Walker Wood’s life of dedication and service, his son and daughter-in-law, Neil and Susan Wood, established The Walker Wood Foundation in 2006 in Canada where they had built successful careers. The Foundation’s main purpose is to provide financial aid and encouragement to students throughout Canada who excel academically, demonstrate leadership or similar qualities, and who might face financial barriers to pursuing further education – reflecting the exemplary life of the Foundations’ namesake.

Following in her grandfather’s footsteps, Dr. Kate Wood (PGM’12) practised as a family physician after completing her Residency in Family Medicine at Dalhousie. She also trained Dal medical students and residents doing family medicine rotations at her Halifax clinic over the years. As Vice President of the Walker Wood Foundation, she has seen firsthand the difference financial support has made for students across Canada. The Foundation has provided scholarships to Dal students for over a decade.

“Given the challenges in recruiting family medicine doctors in Canada, the Walker Wood Foundation wished to increase our support and provide a gift that would be transformative for medical students aspiring to enter the practice of family medicine,” says Kate Wood. “Our hopes are to encourage medical students to enter family medicine as it is such a rewarding and diverse career.”

“I myself had an amazing experience during my family medicine residency in Nova Scotia and I quickly realized that Dalhousie University shares many of the values that my grandfather inspires in our family and the Walker Wood Foundation,” Dr. Wood adds. “The Walker Wood Foundation is delighted to provide this support to Dalhousie University.”

A bright future ahead

The first two award recipients will be named in May 2024 during convocation. Two awards will follow every year for the next five years, for a total of 12 recipients.

The announcement in October of the new James Walker Wood Award is already creating a stir.

“This is an incredibly generous award that directly addresses some of the financial considerations that students have with respect to choosing a career in Family Medicine, as well as practising in the Maritime provinces,” says Kenisse Trotman, President of the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society. “We are honoured that the Walker Wood Foundation believes in us as future physicians and has chosen Dalhousie for this support.”