A Banner Fundraising Year for Volunteer Employees of Essar Steel Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie 

From January 20-25, 2014, volunteer employees and retirees of Essar Steel Algoma Inc. came together for their eighth annual Bring a Doctor Home Hockey Tournament at the John Rhodes Community Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. Since its inception in 2006, the Bring a Doctor Home Tournament has raised over $160,000 student bursaries that support medical students at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) who hail from the Sault.

A volunteer appreciation event was held on Thursday, January 23, 2014 to celebrate the $30,596 raised for the Bring a Doctor Home Bursary at NOSM. A cheque for this amount was presented to Dr. Janice Willett, NOSM Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs on behalf of the School. In addition to being an Associate Dean at the School, Dr. Willett is also a gynecologist from Sault Ste. Marie.

“The volunteers for the Bring a Doctor Home Tournament provide a shining example of how, when people come together, they can truly inspire positive change in their community,” says Dr. Janice Willett, NOSM Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs. “The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is grateful to the community of Sault Ste. Marie for the generous support that they provide to our learners each year.”

“Everyone connected to the Bring a Doctor Home Tournament understands our goal of recruiting physicians,” says tournament Financial Director and Treasurer, Brent Lamming. “Many of our collaborators are presently without a primary care physician. With our efforts, we are sincerely hopeful that students, upon completion of their training, will return to our city and become part of our community.”

The 2013 collection for this tournament marks the highest year of donations to the Bring a Doctor Home Tournament, beating the previous banner years of $24,241 and $23,000 and 2012 and 2011 respectively.

Northern European Countries to Learn From Canada’s Strategies to Attract Health Professionals to Underserviced Areas

Recruiting and retaining health-care professionals for rural and remote communities is an ongoing challenge in many parts of the world. Beginning today, Canada’s Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is hosting an international conference aimed at sharing strategies for attracting health-care professionals and other public sector workers to underserved areas. The conference will conclude on Friday, January 17, 2014.

The Canadian Recruit and Retain Conference, taking place in Thunder Bay, Ontario, brings together international delegates from several northern European countries to discuss best practices for ensuring that people living in remote communities benefit from high-quality health care. The conference is part of the Recruit and Retain project funded by the European Union, of which NOSM is the only non-European partner.

NOSM’s inclusion in the Recruit and Retain project stems from its social accountability mandate responding to the health-care needs of rural and remote communities in Northern Ontario. Since it opened in 2005, NOSM’s made-in-the-North solution has garnered international recognition for its unique and effective model. In a very short time, NOSM has become a world leader in community-engaged medical education and research, while staying true to its social accountability mandate of contributing to improving the health of the people and communities of Northern Ontario.

“I am very excited about working with our international partners,” explains Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “We all have the same goal in mind: ensuring that people – no matter where they live – have equal access to quality medical care. I am sincerely looking forward to sharing the experiences of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and hearing more about the strategies of our European collaborators.”

Conference participants include policy makers, educators, and health professionals from across Europe and Canada, including representation from the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement’s (CFHI) Northern, Rural or Remote Pan-Provincial Collaboration who will share how the Collaboration is uniting regions across five provinces to address common health care challenges. CFHI is providing in-kind support for the conference, where many of the European project partners in attendance are from European agencies equivalent to the Canadian regional health authority partners that make up the Collaboration.

The other participating countries are Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.

“The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement is pleased to support this conference focusing on the recruitment and retention of health-care professionals in rural and remote communities,” says Maureen O’Neil, President, CFHI.  “Bringing together Canadian and international experts to share best practices for improving health care aligns perfectly with CFHI’s focus on spreading health care innovations across jurisdictions.”   ​

About CFHI:

The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement ( www.cfhi-fcass.ca ) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to healthcare improvement and transformation for Canadians. CFHI collaborates with governments, policy-makers, and health system leaders to convert evidence and innovative practices into actionable policies, programs, tools and leadership development. CFHI is funded through an agreement with the Government of Canada.

For further information, please contact:

Paulette Roberge
Senior Communications Specialist
Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement
613-790-1070
paulette.roberge@cfhi-fcass.ca

On Thursday, November 28, 2013, faculty of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) presented their innovative research projects at a provincial showcase in Toronto. Titled “Innovation Fund Showcase 2013: From Innovation to Practice,” the showcase featured a selection of research projects being led by academic physicians committed to transforming healthcare delivery in Ontario. The conference was a joint initiative of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and the Ontario Medical Association.

The showcase highlighted projects that have been funded by the Innovation Fund – a pool of funding that was established to encourage physicians to develop new approaches to deliver better medical care in Ontario. Each year, $10 million is released to the 17 academic health science centres across the province. NOSM receives an allocation from this fund which is administered by the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association (NOAMA). Through NOAMA, NOSM’s physician clinical faculty from across Northern Ontario can apply for funding to pursue research that will improve patient care. 

Through a very competitive process, physicians submit projects to be evaluated, and they are reviewed at the provincial level for this funding. Since 2005, NOSM’s physician clinical faculty have received nearly $2 million in funding to pursue research to improve medical care for patients in Northern Ontario. 

Of all the projects funded across Ontario through the Innovation Fund in 2013, only a small group of projects are selected to showcase their work at the annual showcase. This year, three projects from NOSM faculty were selected to showcase their work at the provincial conference: 

• Presenting their research project titled “Sachigo Lake Wilderness Emergency Response Education Initiative,” Assistant Professors in Family Medicine Drs. Aaron Orkin and David VanderBurgh presented in the category of Creative Patient-Centred Care.

“The portion of the Innovation Fund allocated to Northern Ontario School of Medicine faculty is specifically allocated to physician clinical faculty – doctors who not only have a very full patient case load, but who also accept NOSM learners,” explains Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “Their decision to undertake research to improve patient care in addition to their regular duties demonstrates how committed our faculty are to improving the health of Northern Ontarians. I express my sincere gratitude for the commitment, dedication, and innovation of these physicians.”