The Problem

Unique barriers.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine formed naturally to meet the immense needs of remote communities. To put the school’s demands into perspective, NOSM currently serves 90 different communities, across an 800,000 km square distance. 

How NOSM handles its service is unique compared to those medical institutions based in urban areas. When dealing with remote locations, there are different obstacles in language, culture, infrastructure, weather, and resources to take into account. 

For the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, there was a need to build a research institution that would inform the curriculum on how to navigate these specific barriers and community needs. This came after the school realized there was a significant gap in what graduating students were taught, and what they had experienced after their studies in the field.

Rising to Challenges

Hearing everyone.

The school’s academic and administrative teams had a substantial number of objectives, ranging from modest to hugely aspirational. Accurately reflecting all of these views and ambitions posed to be a challenge throughout the project, especially given that all communication had been moved to remote because of COVID-19 and isolation. 

True to NetGain’s principles, it was important that despite the remote communication barriers, we created team solidarity, motivation, and clarity in messaging so that everyone’s input could be effectively included for implementation. 

Results and Final Take Aways

To future success.

The final product of the project was an outline for the NOSM Centre For Social Accountability or C4SA. The new institution’s main objectives are to optimize research, create a transformed curriculum, expand healthcare access (which includes attracting more healthcare talent to the north), and lead in healthcare social accountability. 

Our outlined document provided NOSM with all the steps to implement its new research body in regards to budget, scheduling, hiring, policy, scope of work, range of influences, and relationships to partners. 

The success of C4SA will hopefully be seen in the near future, as they approach other universities to collaborate.