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Alumni Stories, In the Spotlight

How one NOSM alumna is supporting the next generation of physicians in Iroquois Falls

Dr. Auri Bruno-Petrina (Dr. Bruno) says Iroquois Falls reminds her of the small town in Brazil where she grew up. An alumna of NOSM (Family Medicine 2017), she is now an Assistant Professor and a busy family physician at Iroquois Falls Family Health Team and Anson General Hospital. With very few physicians in the community, Dr. Bruno understands the importance of encouraging and supporting current health professionals and prospective students to apply to medical school in an effort to recruit more doctors to the community.

She and her husband Mike Petrina are very generously contributing $10,000 per year to NOSM over the next 10 years. She is the first NOSM Alumna to contribute to a NOSM student bursary that is earmarked specifically for learners from the Porcupine Health Unit region. Dr. Bruno’s hope is to increase physician recruitment and retention in partnership with NOSM by offering direct financial student support.

“It feels good to help a NOSM medical student who will hopefully return to practice medicine in our community,” says Dr. Bruno. “It’s an investment in the student, but also in our health system. If I can convince one health-care provider or student from our area to pursue medicine at NOSM, then I will have achieved my goal.”

In Iroquois Falls—similar to many towns across Northern Ontario—two barriers to medical school exist: the extreme competitiveness of getting accepted and the financial burden of four years of medical school. “These factors are keeping many people from applying and I hope I can somehow help alleviate that stress for students,” Dr. Bruno says.

Recent challenges in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic have also amplified the need for recruitment. The South Porcupine Health Unit responded to high numbers of COVID-19 cases in the area over the spring and summer, during a time when resources were already stretched thin.

“It has been a demanding year for rural physicians and health-care providers in our area,” says Dr. Bruno. “The pandemic really exposed the areas of need and highlighted the shortages here. I feel for the patients who continuously end up relying on emergency services for acute care because they do not have access to family physicians.”

As much as she loves her small town, Dr. Bruno acknowledges that it’s a difficult place to recruit and retain doctors. “When a physician retires or relocates, there isn’t anyone to replace them. For the remaining physicians it means we are more likely to care for sick patients on top of our busy schedules and oversized roster of patients.”

Dr. Bruno says her experience at NOSM and her joy of small-town life are the reasons she’s inspired to help and she speaks fondly of those who inspired her path to family medicine.

“I remember the warm welcome I received as a NOSM resident. I was approached by Drs. Glenna Stirrett and Cathy Cervin who made me feel extremely welcome to the program and thanked me personally for choosing NOSM. Dr. Cervin noted my past experience as a physiatrist, and highlighted how it would benefit my family medicine residency training.”

“What also stood out about NOSM was the friendliness of the residents and faculty who welcomed me throughout my training,” says Dr. Bruno. “I made life-long friends and I was able to speak with the Dean in the same friendly way I would speak with my fellow residents.”

To this day, she brings that sense of camaraderie and friendship to her practice and looks forward to expanding the physician team in Iroquois Falls. She encourages her fellow NOSM Alumni to consider making a personal contribution.

 

 

Homepage News, Media Releases, News

Launch of NORTHH—Northern Ontario’s first primary health-care database and network

A team at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is building Northern Ontario’s first primary-care health research database. Using de-identified electronic medical record data, community and population data from Northern Ontario will be made available to Northern primary-care researchers, clinicians and organisations. The data will be used to help identify the prevalent health concerns and make improvements in care.

The project is being coordinated by NORTHH, NOSM’s Research Toward Health Hub, housed within the School’s new Centre for Social Accountability. A combined total of over $223,000 in funding was received to support NORTHH including contributions from the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association Alternate Funding Plan, Inspire Primary Health Care, and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

NORTHH is the first practice-based learning and research network to offer unique Northern Ontario health primary-care, population-based datasets. It will also prioritize Indigenous data sovereignty.

“The goal is to ensure Indigenous data sovereignty principles are upheld in partnership with communities, and to increase inclusive, equitable primary care research capacity at NOSM,” says Dr. Barb Zelek, founder of NORTHH, NOSM’s Division Head of Clinical Sciences, and rural generalist family physician practising in Marathon.

“For Northern doctors and primary-care researchers, it means accessing a Northern primary care database to help answer your clinical and research questions and an opportunity to do applicable Northern-focused research to improve health outcomes in the North,” says Dr. Zelek.

Doctors and primary-care providers are encouraged to join the NORTHH network to both contribute to and access the database to support their own practices in Northern Ontario.

“NORTHH’s database will be valuable to doctors and researchers because communities experience different health issues that vary widely from place to place. This research will help doctors and primary-care providers make informed decisions to improve care for the people they serve,” says Dr. Erin Cameron, Director of the NOSM Centre for Social Accountability.

“At NOSM, we will also be able to inform medical education by using the data to know what health conditions patients are presenting with in primary care and to better prepare our medical students to identify and treat those conditions,” says Dr. Zelek.

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About the NOSM Centre for Social Accountability 
The Centre for Social Accountability (C4SA) is the first of its kind in Canada. It is a model for multidisciplinary, community-led, and community-prioritised health and public health multidisciplinary research. The NOSM C4SA is advancing social accountability research globally and locally by working and collaborating with diverse stakeholders in the broad areas of health professional education, health system transformation, health human resources, social and population health, and social determinants of health. The Centre is home to two research networks, NORTHH and MERLIN, which focus on building capacity and providing tools for change.

About the Northern Ontario School of Medicine 
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is an award-winning socially accountable medical school renowned for its innovative model of distributed, community-engaged education and research. With a focus on diversity, inclusion, and advocacy for health equity, NOSM relies on the commitment and expertise of the peoples and communities of Northern Ontario to educate health-care professionals to practise in Indigenous, Francophone, rural, remote and underserved communities. NOSM’s graduates, faculty, learners and staff are changemakers who lead health-system transformation in Northern Ontario. The School is a recipient of the Charles Boelen International Social Accountability Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the prestigious ASPIRE award, which recognize international excellence in social accountability and medical education.

For further information, please contact: communication@nosm.ca

 


Photo: Dr. Barb Zelek, founder of NORTHH, NOSM’s Division Head of Clinical Sciences, and a rural generalist family physician practising in Marathon.

NORTHH information session coming up:
Join a presentation about the NORTHH Network: A learning health system for Northern Ontario
November 16 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Add to Google Calendar

Presented by Dr. Brianne Wood, Director of NOSM Research Toward Health Hub (NORTHH) and Associate Scientist in Social Accountability and Learning Health Systems. Join the conversation! Come talk about practice-based and clinical research, quality improvement, implementation science, learning health systems, evaluation and impact measurement in Northern Ontario.

Get involved in monthly journal clubs, peer review groups, seminars and presentations, interactive workshops, and more. Contact northh@nosm.ca for more details.

Francophone Features, In the Spotlight

NOSM student from Timmins aspires to be a hometown doctor

Sébastien Labelle is a second year Francophone medical student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). He holds an undergraduate degree in biomedical science from the University of Ottawa, where he studied solely in French.

“I was a little nervous about coming to NOSM to study in English for the first time, but I have been very well supported here,” Sébastien says. “The Francophone Affairs team at NOSM, specifically Danielle Barbeau-Rodrigue and Laïla Faivre, have been a great support and have ensured I can secure placements in French.”

Sébastien says he is inspired by his family—his uncle, who is a surgeon in Timmins, and his family members who travel out of town for care, many of whom face challenges receiving care in English.

Although the curriculum is taught in English, Sébastien says that he speaks entirely in French with his Francophone classmates while in Thunder Bay. He welcomes the opportunities to access French sessions, which include medical terminology and learning how to take a patient history in French. Sébastien has also been pleasantly surprised by those interested in learning more about care in the French language.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of Anglophone students ask to sit in and observe how we interview and take a patient’s history in French.” He appreciates his classmate’s genuine interest in the Franco-Ontarian dialect, medical terminology and Active Offer.

Sébastien is currently part of a research team that will be interviewing Francophone NOSM graduates to determine how participating in the French-language opportunities shaped their learning experiences, student identity, and career decisions. Sébastien is hoping that upon completion of the project, concrete recommendations will be made to improve the School’s Francophone curriculum.

“Although I was worried about studying in English for the first time in my life, I chose NOSM because I knew I wanted to practice in Northern Ontario and I knew I would have opportunities to practise my French throughout the MD program,” says Sébastien. “As a Francophone, I have a voice at NOSM.”

This past summer, Sébastien completed a placement in Timmins—his hometown.  “I really hope to continue to spend time with Francophone physicians. I appreciate how NOSM places emphasis on Indigenous and Francophone health issues. It is inspiring to see NOSM alumni return to their communities, like Dr. Shyanne Fournier,” says Sébastien. Dr. Fournier is a recent Francophone graduate of NOSM’s MD Class of 2021, who started her residency in Family Medicine in Hearst in July.

“Many Francophone patients do not have a family doctor, let alone one that is able to speak their language. I want to be part of the solution,” says Sébastien. “I know a few people who are applying to NOSM through the Francophone Admissions Stream. I know they will feel very supported at NOSM, just as I have from day one. I feel at home here.”

Sébastien says his goal has always been to return to Timmins. He plans to practise medicine and deliver care in French as much as possible.

 

 

 

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