A Life of Service: Dr. Jean Anawati Reflects on Rural Medicine and Hopes for the Future

When Dr. Jean Anawati moved to Sturgeon Falls in the 1970s, doctors were few and far between. As a new physician, he and his colleagues were jacks-of-all trades: they delivered babies, managed the emergency room, did rounds at the hospital, and provided care for their community from beginning to end of life. Being a rural physician was demanding—it required versatility and a deep sense of responsibility. Despite the lack of physicians in the area, what stood out to Dr. Anawati most was the disconnect between young people and their engagement with health professional’s education in the region.

“I asked the high school guidance counselors why no one was going to medical school,” he recalls. “They told me, ‘People here become mechanics, farmers, and lumberjacks.’ I told them, ‘Not everyone is born to be a lumberjack.’”

It was this “radical” belief Northern Ontario’s youth could become doctors that Dr. Anawati, and a few like-minded colleagues shared, that he says would change the community of West Nipissing. This belief would benefit all of Northern Ontario and drive the region towards a brighter future. They shared the idea that health care was not just about treating patients but meeting the social and functional needs of a community, this idea would inspire much-needed initiatives across the region.

At the time when Dr. Anawati arrived in Northern Ontario to begin his medical practice, young people had little choice but to relocate to southern Ontario to pursue opportunities. This often meant many medical graduates from Northern Ontario were not likely to return to the North following their residency. To Dr. Anawati, it was clear what needed to happen: medical education in the North, for the North. Beyond that, services for Francophone and First Nations communities in the region were extremely lacking, meaning a solution that met the needs of everyone in the community was of utmost priority.

Dr. Anawati was invited by a colleague to contribute to the development of what would eventually become NOSM University. He was one of two bilingual members of the group, providing him the opportunity to advocate for Franco-Ontarians through emphasizing the importance of a bilingual Family Medicine program. Starting with the Northeastern Ontario Medical Education Corporation (NOMEC), an effort to train family physicians for Northern Ontario was underway, but the need to establish a more permanent education institution geared to Northern and rural medicine became clear.

“It was a natural evolution,” Dr. Anawati explains. “At first, we thought the Northern Ontario School of Medicine could just be a faculty within Laurentian University and Lakehead University. But we knew the goal was always independence—to run our own programs, tailored for the North, by people from the North. We weren’t politicians. We were just people who wanted to improve health care in our communities. What mattered was that we trained physicians and they chose to practise in the North.”

For Dr. Anawati, a proud member of Ontario’s sizable Francophone community, the education of Francophone doctors was vital to addressing the needs of communities across the region. “We created the Francophone Reference Group and made sure NOSM’s residency programs included French-speaking communities,” he says. “The best way to serve Franco-Ontarians was to train Franco-Ontarians. We’ve made progress, but we still need more.”

While only 5% of Ontario’s population is Francophone, about 25% of Northern Ontario’s population is French speaking. “If you look at other universities in Ontario, only 5% of their learners might be Francophone. At NOSM University, that number is more like 15%, which doesn’t fully reflect our Francophone population. There is room to improve on encouraging Francophone residents of Northern Ontario to apply to medical school to see that 25% reflected in our admissions.”

The solution is simple, says Dr. Anawati: “If you’re Francophone, train in a Francophone community. If you’re Indigenous, train in an Indigenous community. That is what we need—people from these communities becoming doctors and going back to serve them.”

Dr. Anawati’s devotion to the community was not one he tackled alone. In fact, his whole family became involved. He and his wife, Mrs. Jocelyne Anawati, shared the belief that being in health care meant being involved in the community, beyond providing strictly medical care.

“My wife was a Northern Ontarian nurse from North Bay and was deeply familiar with the reality of life in the North. As an ICU nurse, she often witnessed the challenges patients faced when they could not communicate in their mother tongue during some of the most critical and stressful moments of their lives.” Dr. Anawati shares that Jocelyne was quite accomplished and involved in their community. “For example, I didn’t grow up with hockey. I was born in Egypt, where the sport wasn’t part of our culture. However, in the emergency room we saw the results of hockey-related injuries. In Sturgeon Falls, back in those days, the newly constructed pool was underused. My wife and a group of fellow nurses took the initiative to form a swim team, which is still going to this day, providing young people with more sporting options.”

Eventually, Jocelyne stopped working as an ICU nurse and took over running Dr. Anawati’s office. “When we had students and residents in our community, we made it a point to welcome them into our home. Every Wednesday evening, we invited them for supper with our kids. Some, including a few from Sudbury, would spend the evening with us so they could feel more at home during their placements. Some residents were living close to our home and knew they could stop by if they needed anything. My wife became like an adopted mother.”

With 2025 marking NOSM University’s 20^th anniversary, Dr. Anawati was asked to share his hopes and vision for the next 20 years.

“There are too many clerical demands on physicians, and that needs to be addressed. Working alone also leads to burn out. It’s time for a new generation to take the lead. I’ve done my share for a long time, and though I still have many visions for the future, the future must evolve with the new generation of physicians. We have to increase the number of students and residents—especially more rural and Francophone family physicians. And we need to increase the number of Francophone students and fully integrate them into the community. I ensured that residents spent time with the local pharmacist and Registered Nurse. I exposed them to the Women’s Shelter, the Community Living Association, and other services in the community so they can better understand their roles and responsibility to the entire community, not just their patients.”

As a final thought, Dr. Anawati reminded up-and-coming medical learners of this: “If you see a missing service, gather like-minded people and create it,” he says. “But remember one thing: if you open a door, be ready to deal with whatever is behind it. Don’t go into the community thinking you have a solution to everything. You must work with the people of that community to get it done.”

The Dr. Jean Anawati Bursary was established by Dr. Anawati in 2006. In remembrance of his wife Jocelyne, Dr. Anawati generously furthered his contribution in February 2025, bringing the bursary’s total to more than $100,000. The award benefits full-time medical students at NOSM University with connections to West Nipissing and the Franco-Ontarian community.