On March 6, 2012, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) received notice that all undergraduate medical students in the 2012 graduating class successfully matched to Canadian residency programs on their first attempt. This is the third time that NOSM is the only Canadian medical school in more than ten years to have all students matched in the first round of matches of the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS).

“What an exciting time for our fourth-year MD students! Not only have the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s medical students obtained entry into their first-choice residency programs, but they have also showed how highly regarded NOSM medical students are across the country. I congratulate each student in the graduating class of 2012 on this notable success,” said Dr. Strasser, Dean of NOSM.

In the final year of medical school, each student must apply for residency training to become a fully-trained physician. Postgraduate residency programs are offered at all Canadian medical schools in various disciplines (for example, family medicine, anesthesia, dermatology, orthopedic surgery, etcetera) ranging in duration from two to five years, or more. Acceptance to a residency program involves students applying to medical school in a discipline of their choice. Students are then invited to participate in an interview with the school. After the interview process, both the student and the program they have applied to rank each other for preference through CaRMS. CaRMS then matches students, based on rankings, to postgraduate residency programs across Canada.

“Once again, NOSM’s medical students have proven that the training and preparation received through NOSM’s model of distributed, community-engaged medical education is developing physicians who are sought after by medical programs across the country. Across Northern Ontario, physicians, faculty and staff at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine should be proud of their contributions to this success,” said Dr. Lisa Graves, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education at NOSM.

Seventeen out of 54 MD students from NOSM’s undergraduate program have chosen to continue to train in residency programs offered in Northern Ontario. Specialties to which students matched include: family medicine, psychiatry, anesthesia, dermatology, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, radiation oncology, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.

Using a combination of video- and tele-conference connectivity across Northern Ontario, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held a regular meeting of the Board of Directors on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

Members of the Board received a presentation on the School’s upcoming MD program Accreditation Site Visit on March 18-21, 2012 from NOSM’s Director of Equity and Quality, Kate Beatty.

The Directors received reports from several Board Committees, including the Finance and Audit, Quality Monitoring, Executive, Governance, Nominating, and Advancement Committees.

The Directors also reviewed the Financial Report for the period ending January 31, 2012.

The next meeting of the Board of Directors is the Annual Board Retreat Meeting scheduled for May 10-11, 2012 in North Bay, Ontario.

For further information, please contact:

news@nosm.ca

Five Canadian universities have been chosen in a prominent international competition to represent North America as one of 4 global innovation collaboratives to work with the prestigious U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) on a project to lead innovation in health education across the globe.

“This is an exciting opportunity for health professions and medical schools across Canada to help lead a global conversation about the ways we can improve health education,” said David Naylor, President, University of Toronto, and member of the Lancet Commission. “This was an exceptionally competitive selection process and the strength of our proposal rested on our ability to bring together a diverse group of Canadian partners with experience serving different regions of Canada, as well as Aboriginal, Francophone and inner-city populations.”

The Canadian partnership – called the Canadian Interprofessional Health Leadership Collaborative (CIHLC) – is being led by the University of Toronto, and consists of the University of British Columbia, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Queen’s University and Université Laval as regional leads, as well as their affiliated networks across multiple sites in Canada, the United States and globally. The CIHLC is a multi-institutional and interprofessional partnership that includes the faculties and schools of medicine, nursing, public health and programs of interprofessional education (IPE), representing numerous health care professions at each of the five universities.

The IOM’s Board on Global Health chose the CIHLC as one of 4 innovation collaboratives following an international competition among academic institutions around the world. The collaboratives are intended to incubate and pilot ideas for reforming health professional education called for in the seminal Lancet Commission report (2010) and will be a key part of IOM’s new Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education, to be launched in March 2012.

“Emerging societal trends, such as health disparities, the complexity of chronic illnesses, and the movement towards community-centred care are challenging health professionals to find new ways of delivering care and providing collaborative leadership,” said Dr. Sarita Verma, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Associate Vice-Provost, Health Professions Education at the University of Toronto. “That’s why it’s critically important for us to focus on the types of collaborative leadership skills and competencies that students and learners require to effectively work in diverse and culturally sensitive environments.”

Each partner within the CIHLC brings unique and specific strengths in their expertise and experience in health education and leadership. They have also worked collaboratively in similar types of initiatives and programs across Canada as well as globally. The focus of the CIHLC project is on the theme of collaborative leadership for health system change, transforming health and teaching across Canada and North America with approaches that can be transferable globally.

The Leads for the CIHLC are Dr. Verma and Ms. Maria Tassone, Director, Centre for Interprofessional Education University of Toronto, and Senior Director, Health Professions and Interprofessional Care & Integration University Health Network, who will be the nominee and alternate to the Global Forum respectively.

Joining Dr. Verma and Ms. Tassone will be the following collaborative leads from each partner institution:

· Dr. Lesley Bainbridge, Director, Interprofessional Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

· Dr. Margo Paterson, Professor, Occupational Therapy Program and Director, Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice Queen’s University

· Ms. Sue Berry, Assistant Dean of Integrated Clinical Learning, and Dr. David Marsh, Associate Dean, Community Engagement, Northern Ontario School of Medicine

· Dr. Serge Dumont, Director, Office of Interprofessional Education, Pavillon Charles De-Koninck, Université Laval

Quote:

“The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is excited to have a lead role in this global initiative to transform health professional education. The project highlights the importance of the School’s unique model of distributed, community-engaged medical education and integrated interprofessional clinical learning, guided by social accountability,” said Dr. Roger Strasser, Dean, Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

For further information, please contact:

news@nosm.ca