WITH YOUR SUPPORT,
USASK MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS AND RESEARCHERS WILL CHANGE
OUR WORLD
MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS
THE WORLD NEEDS
With your support, we will fulfill our vision: to improve the health and well-being of the people of Saskatchewan and the world.
By supporting the College of Medicine, you are ensuring that education, research and clinical care continues to improve and advance.
We are Saskatchewan’s only medical school. Your support means we can train the next generation of doctors and physical therapists and discover cutting-edge treatment for diseases in our province, for our province—and that means improved health and well-being for our people and communities.
Current Priorites
USask Biobank
This critical biobank was created in 2021 because of a partnership between the Department of Anatomic Pathology and the Oncology program with the goal of creating an academic repository for tumor samples to be used for short- and long-term cancer research.
Development and sustainability of the biobank will increase the calibre of cancer care for all Saskatchewan patients and families. Information from the genomic and precision analysis of tumor specimens from the biobank allows for the most advanced care possibilities for every single patient.
The biobank is working on testing, delivering, and personalizing cancer treatments across the province to provide precision medicine to each cancer patient. Scientists with USask aim to have the capability to test a tumor for drug sensitivities and even design a drug for a specific patient’s tumor. However, the biobank requires significant investment and support to purchase the technology, equipment, and consumables to keep it operational and accelerate its work.
ER Medicine for Research in Vulnerable Populations
The Emergency Room (ER) is the gateway to the hospital and place of last resort for our rural and vulnerable patients.
The ER is the ideal setting in which to study these populations because when our health and social safety net fails, it is where they turn. The study of these patients and the system failures that lead them to seek care has the potential to identify the systemic problems and propose solutions.
Support of this project will fund powerful research to determine the how, why and when these populations access emergency rooms and allow us to propose targeted solutions that will inform health policy for future generations.
Alzheimer’s Disease
The College of Medicine is on the cusp of something transformational.
Our teams are poised to conduct a phase II clinical study right here in Saskatchewan to evaluate the efficacy of NeuroEPO in early-stage Alzheimer’s participants.
This breakthrough treatment has already demonstrated it can stop the progression of cognitive decline in 82 per cent of the patient participants, improve cognitive performance in 54 per cent of patients after administration of NeuroEPO and increase blood flow to brain areas previously impacted as a result of Alzheimer’s disease in 56 per cent of the Alzheimer participants.
However, donor support is needed to accelerate this research through phase II clinical trials right here in Saskatchewan. This investment is pivotal to the clinical development process and ultimately regulatory approval by Health Canada for standard of care for Alzheimer’s disease.
MS and ALS Research
Saskatchewan has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Canada.
Current MS drug therapies only supress inflammation and not address the nerve cell damage taking place. To date, there are no drugs that prevent nerve cell damage.
But at the College of Medicine, we have discovered how nerve cells in multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are damaged and ultimately die, and more importantly, we have discovered how to stop it.
Our next step is to test drug toxicity and efficacy in mice, thereby creating a list of medicines for use in clinical trials to treat MS and ALS, for which current therapies provide little relief. Donor support will help us get these novel drugs into clinical trials as soon as possible.
Student Scholarship and Bursary Support
With medical school tuition fees reaching $100,000, support in the form of scholarships, bursaries, and awards is a critical component ensuring students have assistance to reach their educational goals.
Thanks to your generosity, Indigenous students, students from rural areas, and those who have experienced socio-economic challenges will have the opportunity to pursue their dreams of graduating from medical school without worrying about financing their education.
Your donations will ease medical students’ financial burdens and allow them to concentrate on their studies. Your support will inspire the next generation of leaders in medicine and will ensure doctors in Saskatchewan reflect the population and the people they serve.
Surgical Skills Lab
Your support of this new, state-of-the-art surgical lab will better prepare physicians and improve patient outcomes.
By investing in simulation-based training using the latest technology, IT and equipment, we will make training more efficient while improving doctors’ skill performance and increase patient safety.
We have replicated a state of the art operating room so surgeons-in-training have many opportunities for deliberate practice in a realistic, controlled, and mentored environment before they operate on real patients. However, the best and most current surgical equipment, IT and technology is required to ensure the highest quality of education for our surgical students.
This lab will directly support over 100 first-year students in health sciences, more than 120 senior year students, and over 200 residents annually. Your donation to this area will help us attract top students, faculty, residents, and researchers, and ensure our training programs remain accredited
Medicine Advancement Office
University of Saskatchewan
College of Medicine
Tel: 306-966-2600
med.advancement@usask.ca