Northern Routes

We’re revealing our new Strategic Plan: The NOSM Challenge 2025

SPECIAL EDITION Hello, Aanin, Boozhoo, Bonjour, Today marks another historic day at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). I am very proud to share The NOSM Challenge 2025, the School’s third strategic plan. The theme reflects the need to challenge ourselves, our communities, our ideas, and our commitment to social accountability in order to drive change and improve access to quality health care in Northern Ontario. The five-year plan sets out the School’s goals, aspirations and outcomes by 2025. With an updated mission statement “to improve the health of Northern Ontarians by being socially accountable in its edu...

These days, leadership means dealing with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity—also known as VUCA.

Extraordinary leadership is the key to building high-quality health care and medical schools. However, when it comes to developing a medical career, acquiring the skills of leadership is traditionally not valued as highly as the technical and academic competencies. At NOSM, we are focusing on helping our learners, faculty and staff to become great leaders. Organizations are demanding that physicians have a higher capability for leadership in order to face the challenges of modern health care. A report by the Institute of Medicine recommends that academic health centres “develop leaders at all levels who can manage the organization...

Keep a positive outlook and look for silver linings.

Hello, Aanin, Boozhoo, Bonjour! The sun is setting much earlier here in Northern Ontario. The tamaracks are now ablaze in gold and with the second wave of the pandemic upon us, what keeps you up at night? Here’s what’s on my mind and what keeps me, as your Dean, up at night. 1. Getting through an unpredictable and volatile pandemic. COVID-19 has caused many Canadians to change their everyday lives to help “flatten the curve” and avoid a spike in cases that would overwhelm our health services. For some of you, that will mean you must self-isolate for two weeks, for others, it will mean that you are now working from home ...