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Northern Routes

Uniquely Northern

These two weeks have taken me to Thunder Bay several times and meetings around Ontario, with more plans to travel to where NOSM must be represented; including communities further north, and at the Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine, and the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the Colleges.

It is critical that NOSM is seen in all these places, because NOSM is truly unique. No other voice can adequately represent the Northern perspective on health-care education. If not, we risk being unheard or left out of competing province-wide decisions and national strategies in resource allocation and policy-making. No other school of medicine has a mandate such as NOSM, and no other part of Ontario suffers the health disparities and inequities as the North.

Read more in the latest edition of Northern Routes.

Northern Routes

Dynamic conversations and creating a culture of kindness

Since my last blog, I’ve met an incredible number of new people. I had the honour of meeting NOSM’s Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) and Ogichidaang Gagiigatiziwin — NOSM’s Circle of Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers — on July 19. I’d like to extend my gratitude to the IRG and the Elders for the Welcome Ceremony and the Eagle Feather that they gifted me. As well, I met with Monique Rocheleau, Chair of the Francophone Reference Group on July 9. I shall cherish the trust and kinship that these meetings generated for us all.

We were fortunate to host a meeting in Sudbury at our School with the Federal Minister of Health, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, and MPs Paul Lefebvre and Marc Serré last week. We discussed NOSM’s unique social accountability mandate and our potential to push that mandate to the next level. We talked about barriers to equitable access to care, the disparity between rural versus urban health care, the greater opportunities for Federal support and partnership, critical health human resource issues, health-care delivery issues and building capacity. I’m happy to say that our messages were direct, clear and were heard. NOSM is positioned to be a resource to the Federal government in solutions to health human resource planning, policy in social determinants of health, addictions and Indigenous and Francophone health.

Read more in the latest issue of Northern Routes.

Homepage News, News

NOSM names new Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program

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.

NOSM University