The Royal College Professor-in-Residence is a prestigious program that fosters innovation and knowledge exchange at the Royal College. Every year, a renowned expert joins the Royal College leadership team to examine health education and health policy with the goal of improving Royal College programs.
The Professor-in-Residence also presents a lecture on a priority area of interest.
A review committee at the Royal College identifies candidates and selects the Professor-in-Residence each year through a rigorous nomination process. Our invited guest presents a Royal College Professor-in-Residence lecture and attends other Royal College events.
The Royal College is pleased to announce Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD as the 2025 Professor-in-Residence. In this role, Dr. Meskó will contribute his extensive expertise to support and guide AI-driven initiatives and actively engage in discussions on the impact of AI in specialty medicine and education.
Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD, known as The Medical Futurist, is the Director of The Medical Futurist Institute. He specializes in analyzing the impact of science fiction technologies on global medicine and healthcare.
As a geek physician with a PhD in genomics, he is also an Amazon Top 100 author and serves as a Private Professor at Semmelweis Medical School in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr. Mesko has delivered over 900 keynotes at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, and Yale Universities, as well as organizations like the WHO and the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies. His insights on healthcare technology have made him a leading global voice in the field.
Featured by major media outlets including CNN, National Geographic, Forbes, TIME magazine, BBC, and the New York Times, Dr. Mesko regularly shares his analyses on medicalfuturist.com.
His research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence and digital health technologies in shaping the future of care. He is a public member of the Scientific Subcommittee on Statistics and Futures Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Dedicated to pioneering medical futures studies as a scientific discipline, Dr. Mesko aims to make futures methods widely accessible in healthcare.
He is a Certified Superforecaster for Good Judgment, Inc.
Dr. Meskó will deliver the annual Professor-in-Residence Lecture virtually in early 2026. More details and a registration link will be available in the new year.
Read more about Dr. Meskó and the Professor-in-Residence role.
The Honourable Flordeliz (Gigi) Osler, MD, FRCSC
Appointed to the Senate of Canada on September 26, 2022, the Honourable Dr. Flordeliz (Gigi) Osler is an internationally renowned surgeon (Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery) and health care advocate as well as an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. Her lecture, “The Political Physician: A Conversation with the Honourable Flordeliz (Gigi) Osler,” explores how physicians can influence healthcare policy and public health through advocacy. A fireside chat with Dr. Chris Watling, CEO, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada follows the lecture.
Lecture follow-up question
"How can we foster a space where physicians can openly debate political beliefs, knowing that such discussions could drive progress in medicine? What boundaries and/or guidelines should we set, if any, to ensure these conversations are productive rather than divisive?"
Creating spaces where physicians can openly discuss political beliefs requires a culture of dialogue, respect, trust, and a shared commitment to driving progress rather than winning arguments or virtue-signaling. While political discourse is potentially divisive, spaces where respectful disagreement is expected (and valued) can propel debates to solve problems rather than just scoring political points.
Physicians share common goals: improving patient care, reducing health disparities, and advocating for better healthcare policies. By starting debates with an emphasis on shared goals and priorities, rather than pointing out differences, trust can be built to keep discussions collaborative and hopefully avoid ideological battles.
Establishing clear debate outcomes, active listening, avoiding ad hominem attacks whilst promoting civility and professionalism, can help conversations remain respectful and solution driven. Additional training that equips physicians with conflict resolution and communication skills can help facilitate productive debates.
Finally, physicians must recognize our broader impact as advocates. We have played pivotal roles in shaping public health policy on critical issues from tobacco control to universal healthcare; by engaging in respectful and productive discussions, we can continue to drive change in healthcare and beyond.
Saleem Razack, MD, FRCPC
A pediatric intensivist, Dr. Razack’s research interests in medical education include the intersection of assessment and professionalism with representation, equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. His lecture, “Transforming Postgraduate Medical Education: A Vision for Socially Just Specialty Training in Canada,” reflects on how specialty education in Canada may need to evolve and adapt to understand injustice as built-in to health care systems and practice. In his view, specialty education should look at the totality of health as having multifactorial causality, with determinants ranging from the biological to the structural to the lived physical environment.
Nadine Caron, MD, MPH, FRCSC
A member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, Dr. Caron practises surgical oncology in Northern British Columbia where she provides cancer screening, diagnosis and surgical care for individuals in rural, remote and Indigenous communities. Her lecture “Inequity in Access to Healthcare: the ones we talk about…and the ones we don’t,” explores the inequity in access to health care and reflects on the standard approach with patients on the diagnostic journey.
Jeffrey Turnbull, CM, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Turnbull is an internationally recognized expert on the effects of poverty on one’s health and a renowned humanitarian. He won the first Canadian Arnold P. Gold Foundation award for humanity in practice. His lecture “Health Equity in 2021: Social Accountability Through the Lens of the Most Disadvantaged Communities,” explores and articulates new models of care and future competencies for community centered care.
Brian Hodges, MD, PhD, FRCPC
A practising psychiatrist and teacher, Dr. Hodges’s research focuses on assessment, competence, compassion and the future of the health profession. His lecture, “The Future with AI: What will we need specialists for?” explores the role of physicians in the changing world of technology.
Richard K. Reznick, OC, MD, FRCSC, FACS, FRCSEd (hon), FRCSI (hon), FRCS (hon)
We welcomed Dr. Reznick as our inaugural Professor-in-Residence. A professor in the Department of Surgery and former dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University, his career has combined a clinical interest in colorectal surgery with 30 years of dedication to the advancement of medical education. His lecture, “CBME: a strong value proposition and a necessary direction for our changing times,” reflects on how Queen’s University changed training across an entire medical school.
