This book documents the history of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, why its creation was necessary, and how it helps the Indigenous and francophone communities of northern Ontario.

Author writes for Literary Review of Canada and used to write for the Globe and Mail.

Author has written 12 books and has worked with PBS and the National Film Board of Canada.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine hosts a lot of events for its alumni.

This book documents the history of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, why its creation was necessary, and how it helps the Indigenous and francophone communities of northern Ontario.

Author writes for Literary Review of Canada and used to write for the Globe and Mail.

Author has written 12 books and has worked with PBS and the National Film Board of Canada.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine hosts a lot of events for its alumni.

The book serves as a model for community-based problem-solving.

NOSM is completely unique in Canada, and a significant success story.

The school was set up against the advice of the Southern Ontario medical education community, which wanted the school tied to a major (southern) medical school, NOSM was founded to address the persistent shortage of doctors in the North.

They have trained almost 700 doctors, 95% of whom work in the North across Canada.

They have campuses in Sudbury (Laurentian) and Thunder Bay (Lakehead), and are in the news due to Laurentian’s financial difficulties. (NOSM will survive, but it’s not yet clear what the impact will be.)

Most grads not only remain in the North, but remain involved in the school, as mentors, residency hosts, and ‘distributed’ faculty.

One of the keys to their success has been the participation of advisory groups from the communities in the North, particularly Indigenous and Francophone. (Student demographics mirror community demographics, so roughly 12% are Indigenous and 20% are Francophone.)

Students are recruited from across Northern Canada, and there are graduates practicing in Northern BC, AB, SK, MB, ON and QC.

They train the doctors specifically to work in the North – the particular health issues, using telehealth and virtual treatment to reduce unnecessary patient travel, etc.

The graduates are almost all General Practitioners, since they need to be able to function independently in a large variety of scenarios, from birth to mining accident to death.

All first-year students spend a month of their first year living in an Indigenous community in order to become familiar with the culture.