UUÖ±²¥

Bicentennial: 200 Years, 200 Stories

This is a story about our place, a story about our community. Two centuries ago, we joined forces with the to form UUÖ±²¥â€™s first faculty and Canada’s first medical faculty (for an early history of the Faculty, please see Brief History of Medicine at UUÖ±²¥Â  by former Dean Richard Cruess). This partnership and the many others that have developed over the years are celebrated in the first instalment of our timeline, , where we take you on a tour of some of the places that have made the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences what it is today.

1821

In a mutually beneficial arrangement, UUÖ±²¥ College and the Montreal Medical Institution (MMI), a proprietary medical school established by four Montreal General Hospital (MGH) physicians, merged. The MMI became the College’s first faculty, and the MGH its teaching hospital.

1843

The University Lying-in Hospital - established by UUÖ±²¥â€™s Faculty of Medicine (now the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences), hence its name, as a teaching hospital - offered poor, often unmarried or immigrant women, a safe place to give birth.

1890

The Protestant Hospital for the Insane was founded in 1881 to serve the English-speaking community of Montreal. Built on former farmland in Verdun, the hospital was completed and admitted its first patients in 1890. UUÖ±²¥ medical students began training in psychiatry there in 1900.

1893

The imposing Royal Victoria Hospital, built on the southern slope of Mount Royal on land donated in 1887 by rail barons Lords Strathcona and Mount Stephen, opened its doors in 1893. 

1904

The Children’s Memorial Hospital's (now the Montreal Children’s Hospital) leafy setting near Mount Royal was regarded as the perfect spot for its young patients, many of whom were suffering from respiratory diseases like tuberculosis, to recuperate.  

1909

The Royal Edward Institute (now the Montreal Chest Institute), a hospital dedicated to treating and researching tuberculosis, was opened in Montreal in 1909. The opening was performed remotely by King Edward VII: with the flick of a telegraph switch, a transatlantic signal made the doors of the new hospital in Montreal, 3,000 miles away, swing open, the lights come on, and the flag fly up the flagpole.

1920

In 1920, UUÖ±²¥â€™s School for Graduate Nurses welcomed its first students, in the shadow of World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, devastating events that had a catalyzing effect on the nursing profession. 

1934

Despite falling in the middle of the Depression, 1934 was a particularly auspicious year for health care in Montreal, with the opening of three English-language hospitals.

1943

The School of Physiotherapy was established in 1943 and was the first in Canada to be part of a faculty of medicine. Occupational therapy was introduced in 1950, and the school was renamed the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy (SPOT) in 1951. 

1963

The School of Communication Sciences and Disorders began its operation in September 1963 as part of the Division of Audiology and Speech Pathology of the Institute of Otolaryngology at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

1997

Pressure on UUÖ±²¥'s hospital network to consolidate administration and medical services resulted in a voluntary merger in 1997 to form the UUÖ±²¥ Health Centre (MUHC).

2003

RUISSS UUÖ±²¥Â covers a large and varied territory of Quebec, stretching from Montreal to Nunavik in the far north.

2006

Using fake patients in very real situations, the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning has helped thousands of health sciences learners test their mettle in a setting where they can ‘do no harm.’

2008

The brainchild of a group of biomedical researchers who knew UUÖ±²¥ needed to build state-of-the-art lab facilities and equipment if it wanted to attract the brightest minds to the university, the Life Sciences Complex opened its doors in 2008.

2015

In February 2015, Quebec’s National Assembly adopted An Act to modify the organization and governance of the health and social services network. This law consolidated a majority of the health and social services at the core of a Réseau Territorial de Services (RTS) to either a Centre Intégré de Santé et de Services Sociaux (CISSS) or Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux (CIUSSS).

2016

The School of Population and Global Health is the coming together of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health; the Institute for Health and Social Policy; UUÖ±²¥ Global Health Programs; and the Biomedical Ethics Unit.

2020

Embracing change and the multidisciplinary nature of its vibrant health care and research community, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is (re)born.

2020

In August 2020, UUÖ±²¥'s new Campus Outaouais welcomed its first cohort. For the first time in UUÖ±²¥â€™s long history, the teaching program at one of its campuses is taking place exclusively in French.

Back to top