NOSM receives funding for virtual communities of practice

Wednesday April 3rd, 2019 Kimberley Larkin Leave a comment

The office of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Education and Professional Development (FA and CEPD) at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) has succeeded in a grant application and received more than $500,000 to develop educational materials for primary care and specialist physicians on best practices in opioid prescribing. The grant application was a collaboration between leadership and faculty in the Clinical Sciences Division.

The project aims to increase recognition of the social, economic and geographic factors affecting patients in Northern Ontario, develop competence to appropriately prescribe opioids, as well as encourage physicians to draw on feedback and suggestions to evaluate their own opioid prescribing habits.

The most common reason for outpatient visits to primary care physicians in Northern Ontario is substance use disorder, according to data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The North West and North East Local Health Integration Networks also have the first and second highest rates of patients being treated with opioid maintenance therapy patients per capita; the sixth and third highest rate of opioid patients per capita and the first and second highest rates of opioid related deaths in the province, according a November 2016 report from the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN).

“Opioid-related health problems are causing significant illness and death in Northern Ontario, and this has immediate relevance to physicians on both a professional and personal level,” said Dr. Janice Willett, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Continuing Education and Professional Development at NOSM. “This project will provide physicians and other health-care providers with the tools to respond appropriately in their own practice setting, ultimately improving long-term health outcomes for their patients.”

Educational materials will include an online module aimed at increasing awareness about the link between the historical increase in prescribed opioids and the increase in opioid dependence, opioid use disorder and opioid-related deaths. The module will review the 2017 Canadian Recommendations for the use of opioids in chronic non-cancer pain, present data, discuss current gaps in treatment and review patient case scenarios.

The project will also establish virtual communities of practice using the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) platform for physicians and other health-care professionals to have facilitated discussions about implementing best practice guidelines and addressing barriers faced by providers and patients in rural and remote areas, with attention to cultural competence.

The project will be funded by Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP). SUAP is a federal contributions program, delivered by Health Canada, that provides financial support to provinces, territories, non-governmental organizations and key stakeholders to strengthen responses to drug and substance use issues in Canada.

“When used properly, prescription opioids can be very helpful in managing pain in some patients. At the same time, we know that, as with all medications, opioids come with risks. Initiatives like this one provide health care professionals with objective, evidence-based information and resources on opioid prescribing to assist them in treating patients,” said the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health. “By bringing together researchers, health care professionals and other stakeholders to develop best practices in opioid prescribing, we can ensure that patients continue to have access to the medications they need, while addressing Canada’s opioid crisis.”

Gallery, Indigenous Stories

Behind the Scenes: Joseph LeBlanc

Wednesday March 20th, 2019 Alexandra Poling Leave a comment

Joseph LeBlanc is the new Director of the Indigenous Affairs Unit at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

Tell me a bit about your background. What were you working on before you came to NOSM?

I’m a life-long Northern Ontarian and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. I’ve worked for Tribal Councils and Political Territorial Organizations (PTOs), as well as academic institutions and First Nations charities. My PhD work was with communities in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) territories looking at the impacts of industrial forest management on their food systems, and before coming to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, I was the Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of Sudbury. So I’ve been doing community development work for a very long time.

What interested you about this role?

What I was most interested in was the opportunity to help achieve positive community change. When I first found out about the position, it seemed to be an opportunity to be able to advance the health and well-being of our communities, and that was something that really appealed to me. It’s an opportunity to be able to work in the realm of academia and help train the next generation of doctors so that they have a real awareness and understanding of the lived reality of Indigenous people in Northern Ontario, and can in turn provide culturally competent care to those people.

How has the experience been so far?

The experience has been positive overall. I know that we have a lot of work to do, but I’m really thrilled that the School commissioned the Expert Panel on Indigenous Relations, and that we have their report that was released at the end of September. It’s been really important to have that so that we know where we stand now, as well as have a clear vision for the direction we want to be going.

What do you hope to achieve in this role?

The School is guided by our mandate to improve the health of the peoples and communities of Northern Ontario. That is inherent in our relationship with the Indigenous communities we serve, and I hope through my work as Director of Indigenous Affairs that I’m able to bring us closer to meeting that mandate. In the Expert Panel Report, I see a path forward, so my main goal is to make progress on those recommendations, and build on the work that has already been done in the interest of that social accountability mandate.

Is there anything you want to the people of Northern Ontario to know about you or the Indigenous Affairs Unit?

I would want people to know that we’re open to engaging with them in a manner that is relevant to their need and interests. If readers or community members have ideas, whether they are research ideas or issues or projects in their communities that they think NOSM would be able to help with, I’d like them to feel comfortable relaying that to us.

Gallery

Thirty years of excellence

Tuesday March 12th, 2019 Alexandra Poling Leave a comment

Dr. Grant McKercher, an Assistant Professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and family physician in North Bay, was the recipient of the 2018 College of Family Physicians and Canadian Geriatric Society Award of Distinction in Health Care of the Elderly.

The award honours Canadian family physicians in active practice who had made substantial contributions to the highquality, patient centred care of Canadian seniors.

Many health-care professionals and community members in North Bay will recognize McKercher in that description. He has he has been practising in the area for the past 30 years, initially working in a solo family practice, then taking on a focused practice in care of the elderly and seniors’ mental health in 1998.

“I had a lot of seniors in my practice at that time, and I also worked in long-term care facilities, so it was an area of interest right as I was starting out in family practice,” he says. “Then, in 1995, I did a one-month geriatric fellowship sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion. That really sparked my enthusiasm for working with this population, and that’s when I made the decision to do an extra year of training in Care of the Elderly at the University of Western Ontario.

After completing the training, he took a job with the North Bay Psychiatric Hospital’s seniors’ mental health program, now part of the North Bay Regional Health Centre, where he has been for the past 20 years.

McKercher has been involved in clinical teaching throughout his career, first taking students from the University of Ottawa, then joining the faculty at NOSM in 2007. He is also the former program director of the School’s Family Medicine Care of the Elderly Enhanced Skills Program.

“I think it’s very, very important to be able to pass along that clinical expertise and geriatrics knowledge, because we don’t always receive that specific training in our undergraduate and residency years,” he says. “We see a lot of older adults in our family medicine and specialty rotations, so it’s important to gain expertise in the care of that population that we will carry forward into our practices.”

Since NOSM’s founding and the introduction of the Family Medicine Care of the Elderly Enhanced Skills Program, McKercher says he has seen a big change in the health-care landscape in Northern Ontario.

“We’ve had a number of family physicians who have graduated from the program, and who are now practising in various communities across Northern Ontario,” he says. “We’re developing that network of physicians and clinical resources to support family physicians and other health practitioners throughout the region.”

As for his award, he says he feels particularly honoured by the fact that he was nominated by his peers and colleagues.

“A career is something that grows organically, it’s a day-by-day process,” he says. “As individuals, we may not see that until it’s pointed out to us. Having your colleagues come forward and provide that recognition is a very special honour.”

NOSM University