The 2015-2016 academic year marks 10 years since the Northern Ontario Medical School (NOSM) welcomed its inaugural class of medical students. Over the last decade, the School has worked with communities across the region to build a healthier Northern Ontario.

From June 20-25, 2016, NOSM will be hosting the International conference on Community Engaged Medical Education in the North (ICEMEN), which will attract over 300 leading researchers from Canada and around the world to Northern Ontario.

Held in Sault Ste. Marie, the city is one of over 90 communities across the region to host NOSM learners.

It is very significant that the School’s 10^th anniversary celebrations is being held in Sault Ste. Marie, as the city hosted a curriculum development workshop when NOSM was preparing to admit the inaugural MD class. While there have been modifications since, the unique curricular model developed at the Sault Ste. Marie meeting is still in use, and has been a key feature of NOSM’s international reputation in medical education.

NOSM is concluding its year of 10th Anniversary celebrations with a very special reception and dinner. Join past, present, and future friends of NOSM and share your Stories Around the Campfire. The evening will include a rich cultural experience with our Indigenous and Francophone community partners, including a welcome by the Chief of the traditional territory Batchewana First Nation.

Date:             Thursday, June 23, 2016
Time:              6:00 p.m.
Location:      The Machine Shop, 75 Huron Street, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Tickets are limited. Cash bar.
$100/person | $950/table of 10 | $750/table of 8
Dress is casual. All community members are encouraged to attend!

To purchase tickets in Sault Ste. Marie, please visit any Scotiabank branch.

To purchase tickets from any other location, please visit bit.ly/NOSM10.

For questions regarding NOSM’s 10^th Anniversary Celebration, kindly contact Kate Beatty, NOSM’s Director of Equity and Quality at 705-662-7205 or by email to kbeatty@nosm.ca.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is a medical school made in the North, for the North. As the School celebrates its 10^th anniversary, we want to let you know what we’ve been doing for the last decade, and how we’ve been working with our many partners to build a healthier Northern Ontario.

To this end, NOSM is excited to announce the release of a fully bilingual document—“A Report to Northern Ontario”—which provides information about how your medical school is working to improve the health of people and communities in the North. In this report (attached), you will find:

• Facts and figures about new graduates working in the North.
• Information about the economic impact of the School in Northern Ontario.
• Information about the School’s model, programs, and teaching sites.
• Information about the breadth of health research taking place across the North.
• Information about how Northerners can engage and be active with NOSM.

“NOSM was built on social accountability, which means that we are accountable to you,” says Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “On NOSM’s 10^th anniversary, it is exciting to share with you some of the School’s many successes in addressing the priority health concerns of the region—successes which have only been possible thanks to the support and dedication of so many across the North.”

To learn more about what your medical school has accomplished in the last decade, visit nosm.ca. This report will also be available in clinics and waiting rooms across Northern Ontario. Hard copies can be requested by contacting NOSM’s Communications Unit at communications@nosm.ca or 807-766-7452.

Read it here.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Gold Award of Excellence by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS). The award recognizes the School’s 10^thanniversary “Be Active with NOSM” initiative, which took place on September 23, 2015.

Celebrated annually, the CPRS Awards of Excellence showcase the best public relations and communications management projects and campaigns. CPRS National received a record-high number of submissions in 16 communications categories. The awards were announced last night at An Evening of Excellence at the World Public Relations Forum in Toronto.

The “Be Active with NOSM” initiative was created to encourage Northern Ontarians to spend 30 minutes each day doing physical exercise—both as a reminder of the importance of exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle, and to celebrate the anniversary of a medical school that is working to improve the health of the region.

On September 23, 2015, more than 700 people in more than 20 communities across Northern Ontario participated in the “Be Active with NOSM” celebration through a wide range of activities including running, walking, skipping, canoeing, windsurfing, tai chi, yoga, and more.

The “Be Active with NOSM” idea lives on, and continues to be promoted by the School’s Healthy Workplace Group, a group established to support employee wellness and work-life balance. Since the event, NOSM staff, faculty, and learners have continued to pursue healthy activities, and have tagged photos of their exercise on social media with the hash tags #beactivewithNOSM and #NOSMturns10. NOSM continues to invite all Northern Ontarians to use these hash tags on photos of healthy activities to demonstrate their commitment to a healthier Northern Ontario!

“Like the success of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine itself, the efforts of the ‘Be Active with NOSM’ anniversary celebration would not have been possible without the dedication of NOSM’s staff, faculty, learners, collaborators, community members, and volunteers across the North,” says Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “I am very proud that the enthusiastic participation of so many in support of this good health initiative has been nationally recognized by the much respected Canadian Public Relations Society.”

“Members of CPRS, and many of their peers across Canada, recognize the value of receiving a CPRS Award of Excellence,” said Pierrette Leonard APR, FCPRS, LM, Presiding Officer of the CPRS Awards of Excellence in a media release issued by the CPRS. “Winners successfully demonstrate a commitment to public relations and communications management best practices.”

About the Canadian Public Relations Society 
Founded in 1948, the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) is a not-for-profit organization whose members are engaged in the practice, management or teaching of public relations. Members work to maintain the highest standards and to share a uniquely Canadian experience in public relations. CPRS is a federation of over 1,800 members across 14 Member Societies based in major cities or organized province-wide.

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