Pre-Placement Requirement Clearance in Partnership with Synergy Verified
Western University has partnered with Synergy Verified to provide support and clearance for pre-placement requirements. You will not be required to upload prerequisite documents into the AFMC portal with your initial application. Once you have applied, and if a visiting elective placement offer is made and accepted, you will then undergo prerequisite verification through Synergy Verified.
To have your documents validated, you must book an ERV appointment through Verified, a proprietary platform used by students across Ontario for the purpose of digitally collecting placement requirements and documentation for verification.
As part of your visiting elective application, you will need to complete and upload a Synergy Consent Form providing consent for your personal information to be shared with Synergy for the purpose of pre-placement clearance. This form must be completed in its entirety, including MINC or student number and alternate email address.
Your ERV Appointment
After you have accepted a visiting elective offer, your information will be turned over to Synergy. Once Synergy has added you to their system, you will receive login credentials to access your Verified account. Please monitor your primary and secondary email addresses for your activation email, including spam folders. If you do not receive your activation email, please contact the Visiting Electives Office. You will use Verified to:
- Upload your required documentation for review.
- Book your ERV review. The service reviews the documents you have uploaded and provides you with a status indicating your eligibility for placement.
It is recommended that you complete your Synergy Verified clearance appointment within 3 weeks of accepting your visiting elective offer. You are encouraged to book your review early as appointment times will fill and follow-up reviews may be required. The final deadline by which you need to have passed your review appointment is one week prior to your elective start date. Failure to do so will result in your elective being cancelled.
Ensure all pre-placement documents are uploaded to your account by 9:00am on the day of your appointment. If documents are missing or a requirement is not complete, you will not be cleared for placement and will need to book a follow-up appointment for an additional fee.
You do not need to be “present” on the day of your appointment – this is the date that staff at Synergy Verified retrieve your documents for review. Your Verified account status will be updated (pass/fail/pending) once your documents have been reviewed and verified by Synergy staff. There is a two-business day turnaround for your status to update following your review appointment.
Please review the Synergy package linked below, based on your student type for process and required documents. Also linked below is the Synergy Consent Form, that must be uploaded with your AFMC application.
Synergy Pre-Placement Requirement Clearance Information – Canadian Students
Synergy Pre-Placement Requirement Clearance Information – International Students
Consent to Disclose Personal Information
Policies & Statements
Statements
No Elective in any Department/Division/location of learning for a Schulich Medicine faculty will be approved if it limits or restricts the opportunity for MD Program students undergoing Year 3 Clerkship or Year 4.
No clinical electives for AFMC School students in senior years will be undertaken unless formally registered through the AFMC Portal. Lack of registration results in no insurance for students and breach of College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario policies.
Observerships have no Western University (academic) status. Medical learners who wish to arrange an observership must do so by contacting the hospital where they wish to have observer status.
If any documents are found to have been signed by a parent or a relative, you will be removed from our electives list and your money will not be refunded. Your home school will be notified as this is a breach of professionalism. Upload only the requested and required documentation into one pdf file. Do not upload extraneous health information.
Decisions of the Schulich MD Program are final and cannot be appealed.
Policies
Teaching Hospitals and Partner Sites
Western University, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, is located in London, Ontario. The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has hospital and partner training sites all over Southwestern Ontario covering a geographical area of approximately 400 km2. Sites stretch as far south as Windsor to as far north as Goderich, and as far west as Sarnia to as far east as St. Thomas.
Placement Sites
London, Ontario
- London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) – University Hospital
- London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) – Victoria Hospital
- Joseph’s Health Care (SJHC)
- Parkwood (SJHC)
London Family Medicine
- (London) Family Medicine placement sites
- Family Medicine sites in the AFMC portal are listed as “To be Confirmed”, “To Be Confirmed (Rural/Regional)”, or “To be Confirmed (Windsor and Area)”. Family Medicine works with a wide variety of clinics across London, Windsor, and the Distributed Education network. You will submit your application to one of these general areas and indicate in the “Student Comments” on your application your preferred locations. If you omit indicating your preferences, then placement will be made by random selection based on site/preceptor availability. If an offer is extended, the site will be confirmed either via email or in the comment section of your application.
Distributed Education (Rural/Regional Community Site Placement)
- Southwestern Ontario (Approximately 400 km2)
- Distributed Education electives are referred to as “Regional” electives in the portal.
- Community placements are mostly in the following rural/regional academies:
- Chatham
- Sarnia
- Thomas
- Stratford
- Woodstock
- Under “Student Comments” in the AFMC Portal application, please indicate your preferred locations. If you omit indicating your preference, then placements will be made by random selection based on site/preceptor availability.
- There is no residency program exposure at any of the Distributed Education community sites yet offers opportunities to experience learning, living and working in our regional academies located in Southwestern Ontario.
- You can contact the Office of Distributed Education for more information about other possible areas covered in Southwestern Ontario. Distributed Education can be contacted at: distributed.education@schulich.uwo.ca
Windsor-Essex County, Ontario
- Approximately 200 km southwest from London, Ontario
- Sites:
- Windsor Regional Hospital, Metropolitan & Ouellete Campuses
- Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare
- Regional Family Practices in the Windsor/Amherstburg area
- Windsor offers postgraduate residency programs in Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and Internal Medicine. All other Windsor electives will provide excellent hospital, professional, and patient management coverage.
Hospital Onboarding Requirements/eLearning
You will receive an email from your hospital site closer to the start of the elective with further information regarding onboarding and required hospital eLearning.
Travel &
Accommodation
Please do not make any travel arrangements unless you have a confirmed elective.
There is no funding for transportation or accommodation provided for visiting student electives. Transportation and accommodation need to be arranged by the student, at the student’s expense.
Helpful Links
Immunization Requirements
The Formulaire d’immunisation et de tests de dépistage du Portail des étudiants de l’AFMC 2024 is now available.
All students entering the AFMC Student Portal process for the first time must use the 2024 form.
Note that applicants from Canadian medical schools should not upload actual proof of immunizations unless required. Only upload the fully completed immunization (plus completed addenda as and where required).
Note that applicants from International medical schools must also upload proof of the information completed on the immunization form (i.e., childhood immunization records (yellow card), titers, lab reports, physician letters together with the fully completed immunization form).
The AFMC Immunization Form must be fully completed and reviewed during your Synergy Verified ERV appointment, after an elective placement is offered and accepted.
Proof of Influenza immunization is only required from students who will complete an elective between October and March of each year.
Clarification Regarding Special Requirements for Western Applicants
- Section F: Tuberculosis (TB): Western University requires documented proof of a *TWO step TB skin test, any time in your life. IGRAs may be accepted in lieu of this requirement. (*A TWO step means two discrete tests at least a week apart, but up to one year apart. Adequate documentation means the date the test is planted must be recorded, the date it is read, and the mm of induration.)
- All schools require a baseline TB assessment upon entry into medical school, as outlined on the AFMC Form. A two-step TST given at any time in the past is acceptable; a two-step TST does not need to be repeated. If the two-step TST was done more than six months prior to medical school entry, the student needs to have a single TST performed. In addition, Western University requires a repeat TST for students who answered “Yes” to any of the three TB exposure questions found in Section F. Tuberculosis (TB) of the AFMC Form. The TST must be performed eight or more weeks after the last known possible contact with infectious TB disease (e.g., return from an international elective) A TST should not be repeated if a student has a positive TB history.
- All schools require students with a positive TST documented or any other positive TB history to have a chest X-ray dated subsequent to the positive TST or other positive TB history. A routine repeat or recent chest X-ray is not required unless there is a medical indication (e.g., symptoms of possible TB disease). Attach the report (or letter from a TB physician specialist or TB clinic report describing the film). This requirement does not apply to the following situations:
- Students who submit documentation showing adequate treatment for latent TB infection or active TB disease
- Students with a positive TST but negative interferon gamma release assay (IGRA), regardless of treatment history.
- Students who are currently pregnant
- Section H. Hepatitis B: All applicants must have documented proof of a) hepatitis B immunization series; b) serology for Hep B surface antibody (anti-HBs) and c) Hep B surface antigen (HBsAg). Students with an incomplete documented series must complete Hepatitis B Not Immune, Self-Declaration Form (Appendix D).
- Section I: Influenza: Western requires proof of an up-to-date seasonal influenza vaccination for all electives between November and June each year. We recognize that vaccines are only available in all provinces sometime during October.
- Note that if the vaccine is administered WITHIN 14 days of the elective start date, then the student will still be subject to the same protocol applicable to non-vaccinated staff and healthcare workers. Should there be an influenza outbreak at the hospital at the time of the elective, then you can be required to wear a mask for the duration of the elective period / and a possible removal from clinic.
Relevant Policies
Student Assessment
It is the sole responsibility of every visiting student to ensure that their home school assessment form (maybe known as an elective evaluation form) has been completed by their preceptor and returned to their home school.
Schulich administration will not be responsible for tracking down any assessment forms after the student has returned to their home school.
Should a homeschool require a completed elective assessment/evaluation, then the student must provide such directly to the preceptor at the time of the elective.
The supervising physician or resident is responsible for assessing students while on an elective. Electronic requests prior to or after completion of the elective will not be completed.
Western does not require or keep a copy of any of the completed forms.
Preceptors are Western appointed physicians/residents and can duly complete and sign these assessment/evaluation forms on behalf of the Western Visiting Student Electives Office.
If you are experiencing difficulty getting your home school assessment completed, please reach out to electives@schulich.uwo.ca.
