New Faculty
Dr. Marshall Godwin
Professor of Family Medicine
Director, Primary Healthcare Research Unit
Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Marshall Godwin has returned to the Faculty of Medicine as director of the new Primary Healthcare Research Unit. He has brought one research project with him on an automated blood pressure machine to be used in doctor's offices to avoid inaccurate blood pressure readings. This study will look at the use of the machine in clinical patient care; about 200 patients in the St. John's area will be recruited along with concurrent studies at McGill University and in Brampton and Brockville, Ont.
Dr. Godwin said his priority is to establish a practice-based research network for primary healthcare.
Dr. Godwin said future research areas for the new Primary Healthcare Research Unit will be in the areas of hypertension and cardiovascular health. He is interested in investigating ways of most effectively treating elderly patient with multiple health problems.
Dr. Godwin grew up in Belleoram and Harbour Breton on Newfoundland's southwest coast. He entered Memorial University at age 17 and was accepted into medical school after two years. He graduated with his MD in 1977 at age 23 and completed a two-year family medicine residency at Dalhousie University in 1979. He then went into practice in Canso, N.S., for five years. In 1984 he took a faculty position with Memorial University's Discipline of Family Medicine at the new satellite teaching clinic in Whitbourne. After three years he moved to the St. John's campus as research director for Family Medicine.
In 1993 he moved to Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. as research director of Family Medicine. He completed a master's degree in epidemiology in 1998 while at Queen's.