Members Tour La Verendrye Hospital and Health Centre, Participate in Learning Sessions, and Interact with Community Members 

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held its annual Board of Directors spring face-to-face meeting in Fort Frances, Ontario from May 9 to May 10, 2013.

On the first morning together, NOSM Board members enjoyed a tour of the La Verendrye Hospital and Health Centre, where every year NOSM learners undertake training as part of the School’s distinctive distributed, community-engaged learning and research model. Coordinated by Physician Recruiter Todd Hamilton, members were able to see and learn about the facility which offers chronic and acute care, including obstetrics, medical/surgical, pediatrics, and intensive care, to the citizens of Fort Frances and surrounding area.

In the evening, NOSM Board members went to the Little Beaver Cultural Centre for dinner to interact with NOSM clinical faculty members, staff and learners, and local community members. Councillor Andrew Hallikas brought greetings on behalf of the Town of Fort Frances to all attendees, thanking NOSM’s Board for engaging with Fort Frances and other communities across Northern Ontario, and for the work the School is doing to address health professional shortages across the North.

During the two-day meeting, Board members participated in several presentations and interactive sessions on the topics of strategic planning, governance, ambassadorship, and research. Board members also heard a first-hand explanation of the process of the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) from Liane Villano, MD Candidate, Class of 2013, and NOSM Board member. CaRMS is an electronic service which matches Canadian MD graduates with residency programs, based on the ranked preferences of each graduate and medical school.

Nearly 50% of this year’s graduating class has chosen to complete training in residency programs offered by NOSM. Sixty-five percent have matched to family medicine (predominantly rural medicine) residency programs.

After an introduction by Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services Home and Community Care Program Joanne Ogden, Occupational Therapy learners Paula Voigt and Lauren Wou spoke to the Board about their rewarding experiences training in the Fort Frances area, where, before last year, occupational therapy education was not available.

At the formal Board meeting on the final day of face-to-face meeting, the Directors received reports from Board Committees, including the Finance and Audit, Quality Monitoring, Governance, and Advancement Committees. The Directors also received reports from Academic Council and the School’s Aboriginal and Francophone Reference Groups.

The Directors received a Financial Report for the 11-month period ending March 31, 2013 from the Finance and Audit Committee. The Board approved a recommendation from the Finance and Audit Committee that tuition fees for each of the next four academic years be increased consistent with the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities’ Tuition Framework guidelines. NOSM’s tuition fees remain the lowest among medical schools in Ontario.

In addition, the Board approved the proposed balanced budget of $41.75 million for the fiscal year May 1, 2013 to April 30, 2014, as presented.

The Board approved the recommendation by the Executive Committee to appoint Dr. Joel Lanphear Professor Emeritus in recognition of his long and distinguished service in academic medical education and to NOSM.

The next meeting of the Board of Directors is scheduled to occur on September 18, 2013.

For a complete list of Board members, please visit our website at www.nosm.ca.

Contact:

news@nosm.ca

On June 7and 8, 2013, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC) will be combining their conferences (Northern Health Research Conference, and the NBRHC Research Conference) into a single event.

The two organizations share a common commitment to improving health care for Northern Ontarians. This will be NOSM’s eighth annual conference and, building on the successes of the previous seven years, will grow through this collaboration with NBRHC. This two-day conference will be held at Canadore College in North Bay.

The conference will bring togetherNorthern Ontario clinicians, health professionals, academics, and learners, who are utilizing and sharing research and practices for the improvement of health care and education for the North. The conference will provide opportunities for collaboration and networking, and will highlight projects underway from community-based researchers, students, residents, and health professionals.

Over 60 presentations on a number of health-related topics relevant to clinical practice will be delivered. Additionally, the keynote address will be provided by Dr. Franco Vaccarino, Principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough and Vice President of the University of Toronto. Dr. Vaccarino’s presentation is entitledNeuroscience and Discovery Research . This conference will provide an optimal opportunity for the development and planning of future collaboration and networking between researchers, academics, and health professionals in the area.

This conference will inspire discussion, facilitate research collaboration, and highlight the variety of health care research being completed by Northern researchers.

Additional information can be found on the NOSM website at www.nosm.ca/nhrc or the NBRHC website athttp://www.nbrhc.on.ca/research/research-conference-e.aspx.

About the North Bay Regional Health Centre

The North Bay Regional Health Centre is a unique healthcare organization with three primary roles. It provides acute care services to North Bay and its surrounding communities, it is the district referral centre providing specialist services for smaller communities in the area, and it is the specialized mental health service provider serving all of northeast Ontario. For further information visit our website at www.nbrhc.on.ca

Hands-only CPR (CPR without mouth-to-mouth resuscitation), may not be the best method for rural or remote areas or for anyone who has to wait more than a few minutes for an ambulance, a new study suggests.

New guidelines released by the American Heart Association in 2010 permit the use of simpler hand-only or compression-only CPR in some cases instead of conventional CPR. If ambulances come quickly, experts believe that instructing people to just “push hard, push fast” saves more lives.

But a literature review by Dr. Aaron Orkin found little evidence to support those guidelines outside of urban settings or in communities with no 911 services. His findings were published in the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.

Of the 10 studies on saving lives with hands-only CPR he reviewed, only one included rural populations and people who had to wait longer than 15 minutes for an ambulance. Some of those studies showed that people who waited longer for ambulances to arrive had a better chance of surviving if mouth-to-mouth breathing was performed as well as chest compressions.

“Urban studies can’t always be applied outside big cities,” said Dr. Orkin, a physician and graduate student affiliated with the University of Toronto, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and Rescu, a St. Michael’s Hospital research team dedicated to improving out-of-hospital resuscitation.

“Rural communities might need different CPR recommendations to urban settings,” he said.

Dr. Orkin said the study suggests that “push hard, push fast” might be better refined to “push hard, push fast, if you’re downtown.”

One in five Canadians and nearly half of the world’s population live in rural areas. Even in the most developed and densely populated cities, people can wait longer than 10 or 15 minutes for ambulance services. “If someone is unresponsive, doing any kind of CPR is clearly better than doing nothing,” said Dr. Orkin. “But shouldn’t CPR guidelines serve everybody, not just people who live a few minutes from an ambulance dispatch station or hospital?”

About St. Michael’s Hospital

St. Michael’s Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care professionals in more than 23 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, and care of the homeless are among the Hospital’s recognized areas of expertise. Through the Keenan Research Centre and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Center, which make up the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, research and education at St. Michael’s Hospital are recognized and make an impact around the world. Founded in 1892, the hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.