At a recent College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Council meeting, Dr. William McCready, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), was presented with a Council Award recognizing the compassionate and individual care that he delivers to each of his patients.
Described by his colleagues as an “outstanding physician,” Dr. McCready has led the establishment of a renal unit that is second to none and has been a driving force in the development and growth of medical training in Northern Ontario.

The Council Award distinguishes physicians who have demonstrated excellence in the eight roles identified by Educating Future Physicians of Ontario.  In 1993 the public was surveyed to help determine which qualities reflect the many needs of the community and expectations of their health-care practitioners.  The roles identified were:

•    the physician as an outstanding person and professional
•    the physician as scientist and scholar
•    the physician as learner
•    the physician as health advocate
•    the physician as resource manager
•    the physician as collaborator
•    the physician as communicator
•    the physician as clinical decision-maker

The Council Award recognizes those who fit the vision of an ideal physician.

Dr. McCready graduated in Medicine from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1975.  After completing postgraduate training in Belfast, he became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom in 1978.  In 1979, Dr. McCready became a research fellow at Toronto Western Hospital, and soon thereafter entered residency training in nephrology, completing his training in Toronto and Saskatoon, in time becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.  In 1982, he relocated to Thunder Bay, in the intervening years he led the way in the creation of an outstanding renal dialysis care team for the community.

Dr. McCready has been teaching medical learners in the former Northwestern Ontario Medical Program (NOMP) since 1982.  This interest led to his roles as specialty coordinator in Family Medicine North, elective coordinator for NOMP and, finally, as Chair of NOMP.  During his tenure as Chair, postgraduate programs in the Royal College specialties were started in partnership with McMaster University.  He also participated in the efforts to ensure the Northern Ontario School of Medicine became a true pan-Northern partnership and in the recruitment and hiring of the Founding Dean.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) has been selected the ORION Learning Award recipient of 2008. In responding to the unique challenges of Northern Ontario, NOSM has created an innovative distributed model of education that integrates the latest in broadband technologies and eLearning initiatives to assist in the delivery of its distinctive curriculum.

The ORION Learning Award recognizes the achievements of faculty, students and/or staff in organizations in the implementation of initiatives that make use of ORION and advanced networks to promote and facilitate successful examples of innovations in teaching, learning and training. NOSM received this award at a ceremony held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on November 4.

Dr. David Topps, NOSM’s Director of eLearning, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of NOSM. “Wherever they are in Northern Ontario, NOSM learners and instructors can avail themselves to a wide range of eLearning technologies that are designed to advance both the learning process and educational content,” he said. “The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is extremely honoured to be recognized for its eLearning achievements.”

NOSM’s innovative eLearning initiatives include:

Virtual Patients: Game-based patient simulations that allow multiple cases to be rapidly developed and shared between multiple organizations.

Health Services Virtual Organisation (HSVO): A project to create a sustainable research platform for experimental development of shared ICT-based medical services across health services organizations across Canada.

The Northern Ontario Health Information Network (NOHIN) library: A distributed resource with access to over 2,500 full-text medical journals, multimedia resources and learning objects, provides additional online resources such as Online House Calls to support learners and a new open source Web 2.0 library information system.

Virtual Educational Research Services Environment (VERSE): A project that uses virtual reality, 3D visualization and hapto-visual (“virtual touch”) interfaces to clinical simulations.

Northern Ontario Simulators in Health Education Network (NOSHN): Provides distributed access and use of tools such as virtual patients and simulators to education institutions across 1 million square km of Northern Ontario.

Pan-Northern Database (PaNDA): A custom-designed, network-enabled database for coordination of educational opportunities and resources across the health-care education community that was designed through collaboration with partner institutions.

iAnatomy: High-resolution 3D anatomy images based on a large library of real anatomical dissections. Developed collaboratively with Stanford University Medical Media & Information Technologies.

PocketSnips: Brings high-quality educational materials by text and video to learner’s Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), including information on specific procedures.

Praxis & Red Panda: Studies on the use of PDAs as communication, data capture and reference devices in a distributed educational environment, focused on the clinical learning of NOSM’s residency programs but drawing information from across the School.

NOSM Team Sites: A set of online collaborative tools that support NOSM’s research teams, enabling central sharing of large documents, files and multimedia.

About ORION

The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is Ontario’s ultra high-speed research and education network which connects all of Ontario’s universities, most colleges, several medical and other public research facilities and a growing number of school boards to one another and to the global grid of research and education networks.

On Thursday, November 6, 2008, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) concluded a three-day Partnership Opportunities in Research Gathering in Thunder Bay. Over one hundred participants from Aboriginal communities, NOSM, and health research organizations attended this unique event. The first forum of its kind in Canada, the Gathering included lively debate on a range of topics regarding research involving Aboriginal peoples and their communities.

Many participants voiced frustration over historical research practices which have failed to provide benefits for Aboriginal people or communities. Lack of respect for or recognition of Aboriginal cultures was cited as an ongoing concern.

This event was the first step in establishing mutual understanding between Aboriginal people and researchers and developing a framework for future collaborative partnerships between Aboriginal people and communities, NOSM, and other stakeholders. Divergent perspectives worked to spark deeper philosophical questions about how scientific research may be undertaken according to principles which are consistent with the holistic Aboriginal world view.

Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Founding Dean, applauded the participants for their candid contributions to a dialogue that foreshadows collaborative research initiatives aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal peoples. “This has been a tremendous opportunity to share perspectives and to understand the different world views of those participating in the Partnership Opportunities in Research Gathering. Appreciating those perspectives is critical to identifying common ground upon which new research initiatives can begin.” Dr. Strasser added that the School’s focus will expand to include partnerships in research, as well as those already established in education and training. Research and relationship building is reflective of the School’s mandate to be socially accountable to the diverse cultures of Northern Ontario.

Moderator Chris LaFontaine also applauded NOSM for its efforts in organizing the event. “Giving the communities every opportunity to have input from the very beginning is the most significant aspect of this conference,” he said. The success of the Partnership Opportunities in Research Gathering set the foundation for future relationships that will include full participation of Aboriginal peoples and communities.