The development and current status of medical geography in Canada

Abstract

Medical Geography is a recent development in Canada. Although a few individuals have conducted medical geographic research in the past there was no sustained commitment to either such research or to teach courses on the subject. The current growth can be attributed to several factors.

Among these factors is an increasing number of Canadian geographers with Third World experience, the restating of relevancy concerns as applied to research and the recent development of medical geography in the United States, Britain and France. In 1976 Thouez organized the Canadian Working Group in Medical Geography as a sub-section of the Canadian Association of Geographers. In the previous year he had initiated the first graduate course in Medical Geography in Canada at the French language University of Sherbrooke. At Windsor Innes succeeded in funding a 6 month visiting professorship in 1977 for Howe of Great Britain and launched a semester undergraduate course. Starting in 1974 Barrett at York had devoted increasingly larger sections of his course on population geography to medical geography. In 1977–1978 he offered for the first time in Canada a full-year undergraduate course in medical geography. Meanwhile at Queen's, Tinline had been continuing his long-term commitment to disease research for the Ontario government and in 1977 he offered a half-course in medical geography.

Increasingly papers on medical geography were offered at the regional and national meetings of the Canadian Association of Geographers with at least one special session on medical geography from 1976 to the present.

The current status of medical geography in Canada is that of a small but dedicated group. Student response has been very encouraging and is growing, although one would not see it as a major subdiscipline of the field.

A tremendous challenge confronts medical geographers as governments try to reduce health costs and improve quality of life. The spatial problems and the mismatch between humans and their environment exist. The unanswered question is to what degree will Canadian medical geographers be involved in the analysis of these problems?