Real People, Real Impact

Dr. Matilda Taylor comes from an adventurous family. Born in Australia, she and her family spent several years exploring Canada, cycling around the Maritimes, and living on a sailboat. Eventually, they found their home in Gold River, BC – a remote village of roughly 1,200 people nestled in the heart of Vancouver Island.

Growing up here, Dr. Taylor developed a love of rural life and a deep connection to the Island that would shape her future.

After she completed her undergraduate studies with a focus in microbiology and biochemistry plus a stint working at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, these ties drew her back home to the Island for her next adventure at a unique medical program where she could begin her career as a small-town family doctor.

This spring, Dr. Taylor graduated with the Class of 2025 from the UBC MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP) Island Medical Program (IMP) and she is excited to remain on the Island as a UBC family medicine resident doctor in the Cowichan Valley.

“My rural upbringing motivated me to pursue rural family medicine, and the IMP helped me achieve that,” she says.

“An important part of medical school is figuring out what areas of medicine speak to you and where you can make a difference,” she adds. “I think a big strength of the IMP is being here, having that exposure to communities on the Island, and being able to imagine my future career.”

Launched in 2004, the IMP is one of four distinct sites in the UBC MDUP’s distributed medical education program and is delivered in partnership with the University of Victoria (UVic) and Island Health. With sites also in Northern BC, the Interior, and Vancouver-Fraser, the goal of the distributed program is to educate and train more doctors to meet the unique healthcare needs of diverse communities across the province.

As the program marks its 20^th anniversary, the IMP community is celebrating two decades of training doctors across Vancouver Island.

Following a recent program expansion, the IMP now welcomes 40 new medical students who go on to train in urban, rural, and remote communities across the region including Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo, Comox, Campbell River, and the Gulf Islands.

As of 2024, 511 doctors have graduated from the IMP, and 84 per cent of the IMP alumni who stayed on Vancouver Island for residency are now practicing in the region.

Moving forward, Dr. Farrell hopes to continue expanding admissions outreach to smaller communities – and growing the network of homegrown doctors – so IMP can continue to contribute to the healthcare needs of the Island.

“UBC medical grads are making a difference in communities across the Island and province,” she says. “And that number will continue to grow – ideally bringing excellent, culturally competent care to patients and communities every day.”

And just like Dr. Taylor, it was the opportunity to learn, train, and eventually practice closer to home that inspired Dr. Ryan Heron to pursue his medical education at the IMP. 

Tight-knit program, from students to faculty

When Dr. Heron teaches medical students, he takes pleasure in pointing out they’re sitting in the same chairs he occupied as an IMP student before he graduated from the program in 2017.

“I introduce myself as an IMP grad because I am proud of having been a part of that program and to still be a part of it,” says the Victoria family physician and the UBC MDUP IMP Rural Family Medicine Clerkship Site Lead.

A Vancouver Island resident since he was a teenager, Heron says he had his sights set on medicine—surgery, specifically—even as he was studying biology as a UVic undergrad. And when he joined the IMP, with its small student cohort and tight-knit, responsive faculty, he knew he’d found the right place.

“Right from day one, they just seemed to know us individually and that only progressed over the years,” he says. “I don’t think there’s many medical schools where you can be on a first-name basis with the Regional Associate Dean and have such face-to-face recognition with faculty.

“It definitely helped me through some challenges that came up over my training years, to have their guidance and support. It helped even more in my career planning towards the end of med school and even now as a faculty member, I continue to benefit from exceptional mentorship from my colleagues in the program.”

By the end of medical school, Dr. Heron had switched his focus from surgery to family medicine and, in recent years, has become increasingly engaged in leadership roles in the IMP and teaching as a Clinical Assistant Professor. On any given day, he is one of more than a thousand UBC clinical faculty and educators who teach approximately 150 medical students and more than 180 resident doctors in hospitals, clinics, and community healthcare centers across the region. 

In his work overseeing rural family medicine clerkship placements on Vancouver Island, Dr. Heron sees strong educational and societal value in the distributed approach to medical education. “I think we have a good presence as far as the reach of our clinical experiences extending all the way from Victoria on the south end to Port Hardy at the very tip of Vancouver Island. And we have medical students getting both primary care and specialty experiences across the entire Island,” he says.

The program’s reach benefits more than just the doctors-in-training, he says. “I think it’s a really good thing for all those communities to see that medical training does not just happen in in isolation in large urban centres.”

Dr. Taylor found much inspiration in this rich learning environment too. Her time working under established physician mentors at the IMP reinforced her desire to pursue family medicine, particularly in rural and remote communities where doctors serve patients with a diverse range of health issues. “Knowing what the day-to-day looks like for the doctors who are doing that job… I think that is key,” she says.

She is looking forward to her two-year family medicine residency at UBC’s Quw’utsun site in the Cowichan Valley, where she will enhance the delivery of care in small communities such as Duncan and Penelakut Island.

“Rural doctors are often pushing their scope of practice and learning new skills to meet the needs of their communities,” Dr. Taylor says, giving an example of doctors who learn to operate ultrasound machines in communities with limited imaging resources. “I really enjoyed that diversity of practice during my training.”

Building community to serve communities

Dr. Farrell, a UBC medicine alumna and UVic grad herself, says the IMP’s partnerships with Island Health and health practitioners in the area are critical to training doctors, exposing them to the diversity of medical needs and opportunities, and encouraging them to stay.

“I think that feeling of being welcomed in by a community really does bring people back,” she says of graduates who return to clinics or communities where they’ve done undergraduate training. “When you’re training in that local area, you’re able to see how you can make a difference.”

“We really try to give our learners a sense that they are part of this community, and they also develop their own community as UBC MDUP IMP medical students. And the faculty and staff are so dedicated… all are constantly ensuring that we’re doing our best to put on the medical education that needs to happen.”

This sense of community meant a lot to Dr. Taylor during her time at the IMP.

“I really appreciated the dedication of our faculty. Their mentorship went beyond teaching medical knowledge. They helped shape how I think about the philosophy of medicine, what it means to be a good doctor, and how to show up for patients,” she says. “It never felt like they were just fulfilling a teaching role—it felt like they were investing in me as a future colleague here on the Island.”