NOSM Receives Top International Awards for Community Partnerships

Winner of Three 2010 Global Best Awards, including “Overall Global Winner” 

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is thrilled to be the recipient of three 2010 Global Best Awards granted by the International Partnership Network (IPN). Global Best Awards celebrate outstanding and effective business, education, and community organization partnerships that have a significant impact on the communities in which they operate. NOSM received the following top international honours for its development of community partnerships:

– Global Best Award for the Americas: Building Learning Communities
– Global Best Award: The Americas Regional Winner
– Global Best Award: Overall Global Winner

NOSM was recognized for the successful relationships the School has built with Aboriginal community partners to facilitate the Aboriginal Integrated Community Experience (ICE) in the NOSM M.D. program. All first-year students spend one month living and learning in rural and remote Aboriginal communities as part of the ICE component of NOSM’s undergraduate curriculum. The students learn about the delivery of health-care services, heighten their cultural competency, increase their understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal peoples, and gain new insights regarding their emerging roles as future physicians. This cultural immersion experience, unique to NOSM, was developed and is implemented with the participation of Aboriginal community partners across Northern Ontario.

As with all program components at NOSM, this Integrated Community Experience reinforces the School’s social accountability mandate of contributing to improving the health of Northern Ontario’s culturally diverse populations.

The three awards recognizing NOSM’s global leadership in building community partnerships were accepted by NOSM Dean, Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Aboriginal Affairs Director, Orpah McKenzie, and NOSM Aboriginal Affairs Manager, Ian Peltier.

On behalf of the School, Dr. Strasser expressed his gratitude, and called attention to the role collaboration has played in building successful community partnerships. “It is truly an honour for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to receive not one, but three awards acknowledging the School’s global leadership with respect to community partnerships. This success is the result of the vision, commitment, and teamwork of NOSM’s faculty, physician teachers, staff, and the many community partners, all of whom have provided, and continue to provide crucial input into an innovative learning program for students which is designed to facilitate a better understanding of Aboriginal culture and the health needs of people in these under-serviced communities.”

The Awards were presented on the final day of the 10th International Education Business Partnership Conference: 2010 Regeneration of Partnerships to Face Future Challenges which was hosted by the Conference Board of Canada in Toronto from April 25 to April 28, 2010.