New International Steering Committee on Social Accountability to be housed at NOSM

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is becoming home to a new international steering committee—The International Social Accountability and Accreditation Steering Committee (ISAASC). The committee will promote the integration of social accountability into medical school accreditation standards on a global scale.

“The steering committee is about working on getting social accountability embedded in medical school accreditation standards around the world, and to explore opportunities for expanding social accountability into other health professional schools,” says Dr. David Marsh, Associate Dean, Research, Innovation and International Relations at NOSM and co-chair of the steering committee. “The Committee on the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) has done this in Canada and we will draw on this Canadian expertise, along with others with relevant experience around the world.”

“Social accountability has become an accreditation standard in Canadian MD programs and there are many countries who want to learn and build upon this model,” says Dr. Erin Cameron, co-chair of the Steering Committee and Director of the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM. “Globally, social accountability and accreditation are both seen as catalysts for educational and health system change to respond to the challenges in the post-pandemic era.”

Earlier this year, NOSM was named one of ten participating schools in a global pilot of a new tool to assess social accountability. The development of this tool, led by The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH), is critical as it “demonstrates that an institution is meeting the highest standards of verified performance. Social Accountability Verification doesn’t just prove where your institute excels now—it commits you to consider stakeholder impact for the long term by building it into your company’s legal structure,” writes TUFH.

“This is a unique opportunity for NOSM to make an impact at a global level. We are very proud to be Canada’s first medical school to be established with an explicit social accountability mandate,” says Dr. Sarita Verma, Dean, President and CEO of NOSM.

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About the NOSM Centre for Social Accountability
The Centre for Social Accountability (CFSA) is the first of its kind in Canada. It is a model for multidisciplinary, community-led, and community-prioritised health and public health multidisciplinary research. The NOSM CFSA is advancing social accountability research globally and locally by working and collaborating with diverse stakeholders in the broad areas of health professional education, health system transformation, health human resources, social and population health, and social determinants of health. The Centre is home to two research networks, NORTHH and MERLIN, which focus on building capacity and providing tools for change.

About the Northern Ontario School of Medicine
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is an award-winning socially accountable medical school renowned for its innovative model of distributed, community-engaged education and research. With a focus on diversity, inclusion, and advocacy for health equity, NOSM relies on the commitment and expertise of the peoples and communities of Northern Ontario to educate health-care professionals to practise in Indigenous, Francophone, rural, remote and underserved communities. NOSM’s graduates, faculty, learners and staff are changemakers who lead health-system transformation in Northern Ontario. The School is a recipient of the Charles Boelen International Social Accountability Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the prestigious ASPIRE award, which recognize international excellence in social accountability and medical education.

For further information, please contact: communication@nosm.ca