NOSM, TBRHSC and TBRHRI collaborate on the appointment of a joint Associate Scientist focused on social accountability and health education systems

Monday November 1st, 2021 Alexandra Poling

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), in partnership with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHRI) and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), announce Dr. Brianne Wood as the inaugural joint Social Accountability and Learning Health Systems Associate Scientist for a two-year term.

Dr. Wood will focus on the development, implementation, and evaluation of learning health systems research in Northern Ontario and support the integration of educational and health systems research. She will assist in the development of data infrastructure, evaluation processes and strategies that support health system education and foster sustainable research collaborations. This new role will be situated within the research mandate of the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM and the Academic mandate at TBRHSC.

With a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Ottawa, Dr. Wood specializes in integrated knowledge translation and person-centered cancer screening. While completing her PhD, Dr. Wood worked as a health system epidemiologist in Northern Ontario. Her experience includes health equity impact assessments, health system performance measurement, and primary health care capacity.

As Associate Scientist, Dr. Wood will support primary health care research, quality improvement, and capacity-building in Northern Ontario and serve as the Director of NORTHH (the NOSM Research Toward Health Hub—a practice-based research network for primary health-care providers) also within NOSM’s Centre for Social Accountability. Aligned with TBRHSC’s aim to provide the highest quality of care, Dr. Wood’s work will help ensure patient and population needs guide continuous improvement initiatives, education and research.

“Brianne Wood is an established, well-respected academic leader who specializes in both health systems research and health professions education research in Northern Ontario. A key strength is her in-depth knowledge of socially accountable research best practices,” says Dr. Erin Cameron, Academic Director of the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM. “The aim of her new role is to guide applicable, socially accountable, community relevant health research efforts that will inform research, education, and health service delivery.”

NOSM’s new Centre for Social Accountability (CFSA) is the only one of its kind in Canada. The Centre will result in improved health of Northern Ontarians while extending beyond NOSM’s commitment to being socially accountable in our education and research programs and advocating for health equity. The CFSA’s integrated approach in the areas of policy leadership and advocacy; research and innovation; education; and community impact will produce a deeper and broader understanding on a range of issues affecting population health outcomes inside and outside the medical system. In this way, the Centre’s social accountability research defines and strengthens the School, making NOSM and its partners more effective in the achievement of this critical mission.

Homepage News, News, Uncategorized

NOSM applauds OMA commitment to Northern Ontario health

Wednesday October 27th, 2021 Alexandra Poling

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) hosted the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) in Sudbury on October 25, 2021 for the launch of the OMA’s northern health-care recommendations called Prescription for Northern Ontario.

“This is an unprecedented commitment from the OMA to health care in Northern Ontario,” says Dr. Sarita Verma, NOSM Dean, President and CEO. “Our health-care system was fragile before the pandemic, now it is on the brink of a crisis. We are grateful to the OMA for listening to doctors and creating a plan that will assist in advocating and changing the landscape of health care in the North for decades to come.”

In developing the OMA Prescription for Northern Ontario, more than 1,600 physicians and physician leaders provided input. In addition, associations representing hospitals, nurses and many other health-care professionals participated in consultations while almost 8,000 Ontarians in 600 communities offered feedback through an online survey. As the voice of 43,000 physicians in Ontario, the OMA has tremendous impact and has committed to advocate for better resources for mental health and addictions, long-term care and virtual medicine amongst other key priorities.

“I applaud the OMA for listening and taking action. Now is the time for all institutions to come together and contribute to a health-care model in Northern Ontario that is sustainable,” added Dr. Sarah Newbery, NOSM Assistant Dean Physician Workforce Strategy. “NOSM has been very successful in improving access to quality health care for Northern Ontarians, but the reality is we have so much more work to do.”

According to NOSM’s estimates, more than 300 physicians are needed in the North and that number does not factor retirements that may take place over the next five years. NOSM’s strategic plan, The NOSM Challenge 2025, identified this as the key priority with a focus on specialist and subspecialist physician training.

As NOSM prepares to transition to Canada’s first standalone medical university, Dr. Verma is consulting widely across Northern Ontario. RSVP for one of the following sessions:

This consultation and engagement process also includes a public survey, to which you can contribute your input here.

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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: news@nosm.ca

Alumni Stories, In the Spotlight

Revolutionising telemedicine, one consult at a time

Tuesday October 26th, 2021 Alexandra Poling

Since its introduction in Canada in 2018, the teledermatology platform DermaGo.ca has seen a huge success. This technological tool created by a Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) alumnae is innovative and is changing the practice of medicine in order to provide improved access to specialized care to Canadians across the country.

Originally from the small northern Ontario community of Kapuskasing, Dr. Émilie Bourgeault was admitted to NOSM in 2007 and subsequently, completed her specialized training in dermatology at Université Laval in Quebec City.

Over time, having developed a significant interest and expertise in pediatric and general dermatology, and while visiting family in her hometown, Dr. Bourgeault is able to offer such specialized and often unavailable dermatological care to Northern Ontario residents.

This lack of accessible care in remote areas was troubling to Émilie, so she discussed the situation with her dermatologist colleague, Dr. Marc-André Doré. Together, they decided to find a solution to offer better dermatological health care to Canadians. In 2016, the idea of establishing DermaGo, a virtual dermatology clinic, was born.

“We wanted to offer dermatological consultations to people for minor yet common skin issues, such as acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, etc. Albeit minor, these conditions all require a diagnosis and treatment, which are easily provided through virtual consultations” says Dr. Bourgeault.

Launched in 2018, DermaGo became the first private teledermatological service established in Canada. To date, Dr. Bourgeault and her team have provided more than 10,000 consultations via the new asynchronous telemedicine platform. Almost half of the patient population come from outside large urban centres

Contrary to conventional telemedicine, asynchronous telemedicine does not require the scheduling of appointments between the physician and the patient. Rather, interactions are continuous, flexible and happen via messaging platforms according to both party’s availability, allowing for easy time management for all.

Increasing demand

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the demand for these telemedicine services to explode.

“Clinics were closing and physicians were seeing fewer patients. Nevertheless, patients’ dermatological conditions were not on lockdown though,” recalls Dr. Bourgeault, stating that demand for services increased by 700% in one year.

Seeing the success of the DermaGo model, physicians from other specialties contacted her team to learn more about the platform and how it works. This is what prompted Dr. Bourgeault and her colleagues to establish the ORO Santé technology company with a goal to make access to specialized health care more uniform for Canadians in all regions of the country.

According to Dr. Bourgeault, “the goal of ORO Santé is to provide all the necessary supports and technology to help medical clinics and varied health professionals easily set up a virtual clinic in accordance with the highest security standards which will enable them to better serve their patients.”

*Please note, this story has been translated to English from the original French version.

Increasing demand

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