NOSM Releases Annual Report: Rooted in the North
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is more than a medical school; it is a strategy to address the health needs of Northern Ontarians, improve access to quality care, and contribute to the economic development of Northern Ontario. People, communities and organizations across the North had a dream that everyone in the region—no matter where they live—deserves access to quality health care. When NOSM was opened officially in 2005, the School’s first staff, faculty, community partners and students tended to the seeds of that dream, based on the vision of what NOSM could become.
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is rooted in the North. The School owes its progress in making Northern Ontario a healthier place to the many people and communities who have embraced the School’s students, supported NOSM and advocated for improved health services across the region.
A fully bilingual document—Rooted in the North: NOSM’s Report to Northern Ontario 2018—has been released and demonstrates how NOSM is “Rooted in the North.” The report highlights many achievements, including:
- More than 90 communities now participate in the education of NOSM learners.
- 94% of NOSM graduates who have completed both their MD and residency programs at NOSM are now practising in Northern Ontario.
- 595 MD graduates since 2009.
- 135 Registered Dietitians have graduated from NOSM’s Northern Ontario Dietetic Internship Program since the internship began in 2007.
“The majority of learners at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine come from the North, and many stay in the North once they graduate. Since 2011, 194 NOSM-educated family physicians are now practising in our region, resulting in better access to care for approximately 228,000 people,” .
To learn more about NOSM is making an impact across the North, follow us on social media @thenosm. Hard copies of Rooted in the North: NOSM’s Report to Northern Ontario 2018 can be requested by contacting NOSM’s Communications Unit at communications@nosm.ca or 807-766-7452.
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Download PDFAbout Northern Ontario School of Medicine
Since its inception, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) has proudly defied traditional health professional education.
Born of a grassroots movement by Northern Ontarians in need of health professionals, NOSM is a medical school like no other. No other Canadian medical school is a joint initiative between two universities—in this case, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury. No other Canadian medical school provides training in more than 90 communities across a geographic expanse of 800,000 square kilometres. No other Canadian medical school was established with an explicit social accountability mandate—a mandate to improve the health of the people of the region. Rather than taking an off-the-shelf approach to delivering health professional programs modelled after traditional methods, NOSM has developed novel education strategies to meet the needs of Northern Ontarians.
NOSM’s education is quite literally “all over the map,” taking learners out of the “ivory tower” and into your backyard. Learners are woven into the fabric of Northern Ontario communities. They learn in context about the determinants of health that are relevant to the region, with the hopes that their experiences will win over hearts and minds, and encourage them to return upon completion of their training. And it’s working.
You don’t have to look far to find the source of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s success. It’s right in the name: Northern Ontario. Northern Ontarians have made NOSM what it is—a locally grown solution to regional health inequalities, and an international leader in distributed, community-engaged health professional education and research.