The Aboriginal Pathway is an integrated vision of support and encouragement that aims to encourage and increase the numbers of Aboriginal people choosing medicine as career and successfully completing the training.

A report(in PDF format) by Karen Joseph outlines a model for the creation of an Aboriginal Health Pathway within the Division of Aboriginal People’s Health Department of Family Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. This report pinpoints a number of important initiatives that could have a major impact on the number of Aboriginal people choosing to tread that pathway and carry on successfully to complete the journey to a medical career. Core initiatives include an awareness campaign among faculty and students, admissions criteria and Aboriginal faculty development. The report is a starting point for a three-way partnership between the university, the government and Aboriginal communities, and marks the beginning of a specific dialogue that will help to develop undergraduate and post-graduate initiatives as well as the Division itself.