Dr. Ian Bowmer

Dr. M. Ian Bowmer joined the Faculty of Medicine in 1975 and served in various capacities, including an eight-year term of dean of medicine from 1996 to December 2003. He retired from the faculty in 2006 and was appointed executive director of the Medical Council of Canada effective Jan. 1, 2007.

Dr. Bowmer is a graduate of McGill University (B.Sc. 1965; MD 1969), and completed residencies in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Royal Victoria Hospital and McGill University. From 1973 to 1975 he was a Medical Research Council of Canada Fellow in McGill’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. At Memorial he served as internal medicine program director and assistant dean for Postgraduate Medical Education from 1985-88, chair of the Discipline of Medicine from 1988-96 and dean of medicine from 1996-2003.

Dr. Bowmer has received a number of prominent awards for his work in medical education. In 2003 he was elected and inducted to the Royal College of Physicians of London; he was proposed for election because of his contribution to medicine and medical education. In the fall of 2003 the Medical Council of Canada awarded him the Dr. Louis Levasseur Award for outstanding contributions towards the vision and mission of the MCC. In 2004 he received the Canadian Professors of Medicine Christie Award, awarded to a former chair of medicine who has made an outstanding contribution to academic medicine in Canada. In 2004 he was appointed to the new federal Health Council and is one of 13 non-governmental expert representatives on the 26-member council. He is vice-chair of the council and chairs the working committee on health outcomes.

Dr. Bowmer's other professional activities have included serving as the first chair of the Board of Community Health – St. John's Region. Nationally, he has been president of the Medical Council of Canada and was a member of the council and chair of the accreditation and credential committees of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

His research expertise is concentrated in the area of AIDS and HIV disease. In 1993-94 he was chair of College of Family Physicians of Canada's National Working Group for Comprehensive Care for Persons with HIV. He also chaired the college's National Working Group on HIV Therapies for Infants, Youth and Children. He is co-editor of the college's publication A Comprehensive Guide for the Care of Persons with HIV Disease, Adult and Pediatric Module. In collaboration with Dr. Michael Grant and the Health Care Corporation HIV team, Dr. Bowmer continued to be coauthor of many papers during his deanship.