Chair’s Column September 2024: A New Chapter Begins

Dear colleagues,

I am excited and honoured to begin my term as Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

For those who don’t know me, I’m a general internist; I attend on the clinical teaching units at Toronto General Hospital and I have a small outpatient practice in osteoporosis. I’m also a clinician scientist with a focus on stroke and cardiovascular health services research, but I began my academic career as a clinician educator, and I still love teaching and working with trainees. I just completed eight years as Departmental Division Director for General Internal Medicine – a role that allowed me to learn about many aspects of our academic community.

As I start my term, my priority is to spend time listening to members of our department and drawing upon the expertise of our smart, thoughtful, and creative faculty and trainees. What can the department do to best support you in your work? Where are our opportunities for growth and innovation? What is needed to help us get there? What are your values and priorities? I already know many of you as colleagues, friends, and past or present trainees, and I’m looking forward to getting to know those of you I have yet to meet.

I’m grateful to Dr. Gillian Hawker, outgoing chair, for her leadership of a department that is exceptionally strong by any measure. In the coming year, we will need to build on this through the renewal of the department’s strategic plan. In addition to seeking input from within our department, I intend to work with the new Dean, Dr. Lisa Robinson, as well as hospital leadership and the other department chairs, to ensure that our strategic plan aligns with that of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the University of Toronto as a whole.

My overarching vision for the department is that we exemplify excellence in scholarship, education and clinical care, and that the work we do in all of these areas contributes to better health for our patients, our community and beyond. My hope is that faculty and trainees derive joy from their work, in an environment that allows all of us to thrive and meet our personal and professional goals.

I am truly honoured to be leading such an accomplished department. I’m thankful for this privilege and look forward to working with each of you as we strive to make the department even better, and your careers as rewarding as they can be.

Dr. Moira Kapral
Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair of Medicine