The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to announce that, following the final matching results of the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS), the School has filled all available residency positions. CaRMS matches medical students, based on both student and medical school preferences, to postgraduate residency programs across Canada. Students from medical schools across the country, including NOSM, will begin residency training at NOSM in July 2009.

A total of 38 residents will commence training this year in NOSM’s Family Medicine Residents of the Canadian Shield program. Training is offered in five main sites: North Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, and Sudbury, with distributed learning opportunities taking place in many other rural communities throughout Northern Ontario. Residents learn in a wide range of clinical settings under the supervision of practicing family physicians, specialist physicians, and other members of the allied health-care team who are committed to patient care and medical education.

The School will welcome a further eight residents starting in its accredited Northern training programs, offered in the specialties of Community Medicine, General Surgery, and Pediatrics. In addition, 12 residents will undertake training in Northern Ontario in the areas of Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Orthopedic Surgery, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, which are programs offered through affiliations between NOSM and the University of Ottawa and McMaster University. These residents spend a significant portion of their training time in Northern Ontario.

NOSM also offers enhanced skills training for Family Medicine residents and will have 13 residents completing training in areas such as Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia and Maternity Care, several of whom will join the School from other universities.

Dr. Maureen Topps, NOSM’s Associate Dean of Postgraduate Education, is delighted by the growth and success of the School’s residency programs. “It is both exciting and encouraging to see medical school graduates choosing their residency training in Northern Ontario. Our programs are very hands-on, with strong support from our clinical teachers. The residents who successfully complete training with NOSM finish as highly-skilled physicians with the confidence needed be able to practice in a wide variety of settings. We look forward to welcoming the incoming and continuing residents this summer.”

In March 2009, NOSM announced that all undergraduate medical students in its Charter Class successfully matched to Canadian residency programs on their first attempt, the first time this has happened at any Canadian medical school in over ten years.

July 2009 will also mark the completion of residency training for NOSM’s first group of Family Medicine residents in the FM RoCS program, with a celebration event to take place in Marathon, Ontario at the end of May 2009 to mark the milestone occasion.

For more information on NOSM’s postgraduate residency programs, visit www.nosm.ca/postgrad.

Earlier today, five Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) medical students received research awards valued at $6,000 each from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (HSFO). An additional ten NOSM medical students received NOSM Founding Dean’s Summer Medical Student Research Awards also valued at $6,000 each.

This is the fourth year the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario has generously sponsored Summer Medical Student Awards for NOSM medical students. The program is a five-year commitment valued at nearly $250,000. These student research projects provide medical students with the opportunity to gain cardiovascular research training while working with an established NOSM researcher. The projects are carried out all across Northern Ontario. Similarly, the Founding Dean’s awards provide NOSM medical students with an opportunity to conduct hands-on research in a variety of disciplines and allow them to undertake research projects on a broad range of biological and social research topics.

“What makes these student scholarships so vital is the transfer of knowledge to medical students as they begin their careers,” says Dr. Marco Di Buono, Director of Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. “The research they are about to undertake will begin an information-sharing pathway that starts with the students – as they learn and are mentored by strong researchers – and will later be shared with their communities for the benefit of Northern Ontario.”

This year’s student projects, supported by the HSFO, cover a full range of research studies including:
· How Aboriginal patients present to Northwest Ontario Regional Stroke Program;
· Looking at stroke mortality at the Sudbury Regional Hospital;
· Metabolic stress and oxygen deprivation in cardiac cells;
· Effect of cancer drugs on cardiac cells; and,
· Looking at adverse effects of iron overload leading to heart failure.

The five 2009 recipients of the HSFO Summer Medical Student Awards for NOSM are:
· Kevin Agostino
· Pamela Felhaber
· Yves Landry
· Britney Parlett
· Anna Maria Soviero

Immediately following the HSFO presentation, ten NOSM medical students were awarded NOSM Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Awards valued at $6,000 each.

Dr. Greg Ross, NOSM’s Associate Dean of Research, expressed enthusiasm regarding the value of the opportunities provided by the Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Award. “Research at NOSM is reflective of the School’s mandate to be socially accountable to the diverse cultures of Northern Ontario,” said Dr. Greg Ross. “The Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Awards allow our students to remain in the North for the summer and study topics relevant to the people and communities of Northern Ontario while gaining valuable research experience.”

The 2009 recipients of the Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Awards are:
· Kathleen Anderson
· Melissa Crawford
· Carla Dubois
· Stacey Erven
· Meghan Garnett
· Sean Gravelle
· David Harris
· Richard Nadeau
· Josee Poulin
· Zachary Veitch

This year’s student projects, supported by the Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Awards, include the following topics:
· Developing an evidence-based diabetes management improvement intervention for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients with diabetes on Manitoulin Island;
· How shared care and interprofessional collaboration can improve the delivery of mental health care in rural, remote, and Aboriginal communities in Northwestern Ontario;
· Evaluation of the utility of an infrared camera to asses joint heat in patients in comparison to a blinded joint assessment performed by a qualified therapist;
· Accuracy of screening for developmental disabilities in primary care settings;
· Survey of graduates from the family medicine anaesthesia third year resident training program in Northwestern Ontario from the past 15 years;
· Evaluation of the risk of invasive Haemophilus influenzae disease in patients with chronic renal failure;
· Intergenerational differences and knowledge gaps in Interprofessional Collaboration and Education;
· Intensive care sedation and knowledge translation;
· Effect of SU1498 on the proliferation and survival of breast cancer cells; and,
· The examination of doxorubicin metabolites in rat xenografts of wild type and drug resistant MCF-7 breast tumor cells using the microdialysis technique.

NOSM Dean Dr. Roger Strasser noted that the School is fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. “These awards provide medical students, our future physicians, with valuable experience in the field of research. I am very excited that fifteen awards, totaling $90,000, have been presented to the School’s medical students today,” said Dr. Strasser. “In this year of Milestone Celebrations at NOSM, ten Founding Dean Summer Medical Student Research Awards were presented – the most yet for one summer. I would like to congratulate the students on their awards and wish them success with their research,” said Dr. Strasser.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation, a volunteer-based health charity, leads in eliminating heart disease and stroke and reducing their impact through the advancement of research and its application, the promotion of healthy living, and advocacy.

For further information about the Heart&Stroke Summer Medical Student Research Awards, please contact:

Colleen Kleven
HSFO Northern Ontario Publicist
(705) 561-5714
colleenkleven@vianet.ca

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Tariq Al-idrissi to the position of Director, Academic Information Management Solutions. In this role, Mr. Al-idrissi is responsible for all aspects of planning, implementing, and evaluating the information systems that support the storage, retrieval, and processing needs of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, as well as those that support educational activities at the School.

Expertise in medical education and information systems are unique strengths Mr. Al-idrissi brings to his new role. Among his career achievements are the various tasks he previously performed at the Medical School in the capacity of Lead Developer and Applications Architect. Mr. Al-idrissi’s innovation skills, demonstrated in the design of in-house systems and development methodologies, are supported by project management accomplishments, essential to the results-driven demands of the position.

In his capacity of Application Services Manager at TBayTel in Thunder Bay, Mr. Al-idrissi supported the strategic direction of the company by managing multiple projects involving cross-functional teams while coordinating all development projects.

The position of Director, Academic Information Management Solutions includes critical responsibilities: chief among them is the creative utilization of information technology to ensure that NOSM learning programs and curriculum are in a process of continuous improvement through the implementation of advances in medical and educational technology, informatics, and simulation. Mr. Al-idrissi’s command of software applications, programming, and operating systems are key strengths in utilizing electronic communications and information technology to deliver a fully distributed education program at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

Mr. Al-idrissi’s degrees in business and system design in medical education fully prepare him to assist in the School’s mission of providing excellence in medical education.