MD Alumnus New Director of U of C’s MD/PhD Program

By Gen Handley

When Dr. Paul Beck, MD’90, started his 19-year career as a university student, he wasn’t just passionate about treating patients—he was curious as to why these people needed treatment.

“I’ve always been interested in combining science and seeing patients—that’s what really excites me,” Beck says. “Taking care of patients is our biggest responsibility, but we are also responsible for continually advancing medicine to expand our ability to take care of more patients.”

And as the new director of the Leaders in Medicine (LIM) MD/PhD Plus program at the Faculty of Medicine, Beck is doing just that. He leads a program that makes it possible for students to complete their MD while working on their graduate degrees. Students in the LIM program train in providing clinical services to patients and do basic science research at the same time. Beck is taking over the directorship of the program from Dr. Morley Hollenberg who played a major role in the program’s creation and will continue his involvement with LIM as co-director.

After completing his PhD in inflammatory bowel disease in 1987, Beck moved to Calgary where he completed his medical degree (Beck was a “panda”). After graduation, he did a rotating internship at the Calgary General Hospital and then a residency in internal medicine at the U of C, which was followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology. He ventured south of the border to crown his almost two decades of post-secondary education with a post doctorate at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard. He returned to Calgary from the U.S. as an assistant professor in the division of gastroenterology at the university in 1999.

With his wealth of experience, Beck is looking forward to working with the current group of LIM students, which he describes as a “pretty incredible group.”

“As a researcher and a doctor who still sees patients, I can relate to the students,” says Beck, who balances his time as a scientist at the Faculty of Medicine with seeing GI patients at the Foothills Medical Clinic, teaching aspiring MDs, residents and fellows, and supervising graduate students. Beck is also the research director of the GI Fellows Program and an associate professor at the Faculty.

“Paul is an amazing role model for us and we’re really lucky he’s gotten involved in the program,” says Ken Myers, a medical student who is presently working on his PhD looking at how bone cells sense mechanical stresses. “He’s the perfect example of how you can do clinical work and still continue your research.”

Beck hopes his students will continue to see the big picture after they have a graduated from the program so they will continue to push medicine’s boundaries and solve the unanswered questions.

“These students are hopefully going to push the frontiers of medicine,” he says. “Not only are they going to be better at research but they’re going to be better at treating their patients, and I’m proud that I get to be a part of that.”