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SARS disrupts medical education in Canada

Toronto's medical students cope with suspended classes, lost hospital clerkships.

By Myrle Croasdale, amednews staff. May 5, 2003.

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Gurinder Sangha, a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and president of his class, is feeling uneasy.

He's been idle for the past three weeks, missing his general surgery clerkship since the university cancelled students' clinical activities on March 29 because of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. Sangha needs the clerkship for a surgical residency application and he doesn't know if he'll get to make it up.

"Students are feeling anxious and worried about how this will play out," Sangha said.

In the United States, the impact of SARS has been less disruptive to date. David Pegues, MD, infectious disease clinical program director for UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, said SARS hadn't had a dramatic impact on clinical care or medical education.

But since Los Angeles County has the largest number of suspected SARS cases in the United States, he's found university employees to be very apprehensive.

"I get all sorts of questions, 'We're having an employee returning from a funeral in Hong Kong. What do we do?' Thankfully we're not on the front end of the learning curve," he said.

At press time, the situation in Toronto was beginning to look more stable. Rick Frecker, MD, associate dean for the University of Toronto medical school, said third- and fourth-year students would return to the nine Toronto-area teaching hospitals April 23.

"It's a significant disruption, but it won't having a lasting negative impact on their education," he said.