The Making of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine: A Case Study in the History of Medical Education

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to introduce a book celebrating Canada's first new medical school of the 21st century. The Making of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine: A Case Study in the History of Medical Education provides a fascinating and detailed account of the challenges and rewards faced by those who insisted on creating a patient-centered, community-based, and culturally sensitive learning environment for the physicians of tomorrow.

Written by twelve contributors, this peer-reviewed collection describes the development of the School and its significance to the history and evolution of medical education both in Canada and the world. It also tells the story of broad-based participation from the communities and physicians of Northern Ontario, as well as the roles and involvement of the two hosting institutions, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. Northern communities which have shown a growing appreciation for the complexities involved in meeting all their medical education needs will find their story in this 200-page account of the development of NOSM.

Written in highly readable language, and targeted to a wider audience, the book introduces the reader to the School’s distinctive medical education model. NOSM is not just any medical school. Its governance and organizational structure, admissions process, and curriculum are designed to address the particular health demands of smaller, thinly distributed rural populations historically reliant on, and often not adequately met by, medical resources from larger centres.

Each of the book’s three sections clearly delineates critical stages in the School’s growth, beginning with the new thinking behind a pioneering approach to medical education, followed by the content of the new school, and reflections on the lessons drawn from the building process.

NOSM Dean, Dr. Roger Strasser, credits the book for its ability to attract widespread interest. "The unique perspective provided by each of the twelve contributing authors provides a diversity of viewpoints about the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s role in the history of medical education that will appeal to historians, medical professionals, and general readers alike."

A public book launch and signing was held in Sudbury on November 16, 2009. Additional book launches are planned for Thunder Bay on November 18, 2009, and Toronto on December 1, 2009. Contributing authors Drs. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean, and Geoffrey Tesson will provide firsthand accounts of the School’s evolution from a collective dream to a pan-Northern medical education centre.

Ten percent of all sales of The Making of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine will be donated to NOSM’s Student Bursary Fund.

The French version of the book will be released in the spring of 2010, when additional book launches will be held.