The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. George Pasut as Program Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, effective June 2019 for the term of the 2019-2020 academic year.

Dr. Pasut is an accomplished public health leader, having served most recently in executive leadership at Public Health Ontario (PHO) with responsibility for Science and Public Health and Research, Information and Knowledge programs. Having recently transitioned to semi-retirement, Dr. Pasut continues with PHO as the Medical Education Coordinator on a part-time basis.

Dr. Pasut has extensive public health experience, having taken on important roles at the local and provincial levels including Executive Lead for Public Health System Transformation, and Interim Chief Medical Officer of Health.  Dr. Pasut also served as Vice-President of Cancer Prevention and Screening at Cancer Care Ontario prior to joining PHO.  Locally, he served as the Medical Officer of Health and CEO of the Simcoe County, and following amalgamation, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.

Throughout his career, Dr. Pasut has focused on health informatics, population health, health policy, and knowledge mobilization whether at the local, provincial government or provincial agency level. Medical education has been an important area of focus, with multiple Committee roles with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and more recently through faculty appointments at the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, and NOSM.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine would like to recognize the work of Dr. Audrey Campbell, who completed her tenure as the Program Director for Public Health and Preventive Medicine on May 31, 2019.  Since she assumed this role in February 2017, Dr. Campbell has strongly led the program making significant improvements culminating in a highly successful accreditation visit earlier this year. We are thankful for her dedication and many contributions and look forward to her continuing to teach and supervise residents.

On Thursday, July 25, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine hosted a roundtable discussion with the Federal Minister of Health, Sudbury area Members of Parliament, NOSM faculty and medical students. Dr. Sarita Verma, NOSM Dean, President and CEO, welcomed The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Federal Minister of Health, Mr. Paul Lefebvre, Member of Parliament for Sudbury and Mr. Marc Serré, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt.

The conversation opened with Dr. Alexandre Anawati (Emergency Medicine Physician at Health Sciences North and NOSM Alumnus and Assistant Professor) speaking passionately about NOSM’s Social Accountability Mandate. Dr. Anawati stressed the need to reimagine how we deliver health care to meet the needs of Indigenous, Francophone, rural and remote communities.

Dr. Sarah Newbery (Rural Generalist Family Physician in Marathon and NOSM Associate Professor) spoke about the health human resource challenges and the reality of practising in Northern Ontario. Physician shortages have been a long- standing challenge in the region, and though NOSM is committed to resolving the issue, there is still much work to be done.

A recent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information says the number of opioid related hospitalizations is higher in smaller communities compared to larger, urban cities. Dr. David Marsh (Addiction Medicine Specialist and NOSM Professor) stressed the need for more resources to be dedicated to supervised consumption sites.

Dr. Kona Williams (Canada’s first Indigenous Forensic Pathologist and NOSM Assistant Professor) spoke to the social determinants of health in the North and the impact of residential schools in Indigenous communities. Dr. Williams also spoke about the high calibre of NOSM medical students and expressed appreciation of their level of understanding of Indigenous issues.

Many of the inequities discussed during the roundtable are attributed to systemic challenges faced by physicians and reality of serving a population spread over a large geography with a low population density, including many fly-in communities.

Three NOSM medical students, Pierre Plamondon, Miranda Waugh, and Doniya Quenneville, shared personal stories of living and learning in communities across Northern Ontario.