STRATEGIC DIRECTION 5:

Becoming a University

GOAL
To ensure a seamless transition by optimizing our resources to engage and build our capacity and infrastructure as we transition from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to NOSM University, Canada’s first independent medical University.

ASPIRATION
The proclamation on April 1, 2022, was another historic moment for health education in Northern Ontario and will have impacts nationwide. A recognized trailblazer, NOSM University will shape what it means to be an independent medical university in Canada.

Our medical school was making progress with the 2021-2025 strategic plan. Then, on April 1, 2022 the province made NOSM University Canada’s first independent medical university. Just eleven days later, we were told that NOSM University will expand to add 30 medical degree seats and 41 residency spots over the next five years.

Thriving in this changing world requires innovative thinking, and new ways to use knowledge and ideas. In this regard, health care and health research and education have never been more important. We are responding to emerging challenges and taking full advantage of new opportunities. That’s especially true given the nature of what we do and where we live and work. We all know how complex and fragile the health-care system is across Northern Ontario. We all know the consequences of chronic health-care gaps for people. We are trying to transform the system for the North so that we can reach into underserved communities like never before.

With this new strategic direction, we will tackle the seemingly impossible: deliver true and sustainable health equity to the 800,000 people who call this region home. At NOSM University we will provide the tools, knowledge, and insights into the human condition required to ensure the well-being of Canadians and of societies around the world.

With these two historic announcements, NOSM University, now some-20 years in the making, has renewed momentum—and we’re using it.

We’re going to define what it means to be an independent medical university in Canada – leading the way in fiscal accountability and transparency.

We’re going to advance the national conversation around effective, affordable rural and Northern health care: what it looks like and how to provide it.

We’re going to strengthen our existing partnerships and grow new ones, and we’re going to reaffirm and deepen our commitment to the North.

We’re going to educate more physicians and other health-care providers for the North and help them develop as leaders in their communities. We will expand our education and training programs to meet societal need.

We’re going to keep advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion. And we will keep fighting racism, and seek truth and reconciliation.

We’re going to make scientific discovery a priority and lead collaborative research in the North and look for new partnerships for cutting-edge opportunities in primary care, educational technology and population health.

We’re going to ensure that NOSM University’s next generation of physicians, registered dietitians, physician assistants, medical physicists, and others have access to the finest high quality fully accredited educational programs

We’re going to raise funds to support our learners to provide financial aid through bursaries and scholarships.

As NOSM University, Canada’s first independent medical university, we are going to do all that and more.

NOSM University—fully accredited and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our peer institutions—shapes what it means to be an independent medical university in Canada. We know that our cost-effective, innovative, community-based learning model, our trusted partnerships, and our purpose-built mission to bring health equity to Northern Ontarians is working. We are advancing the national conversation about what health justice in the rural and remote North really looks like—and who can deliver it.