Northern Ontario School of Medicine

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is committed to the education of high quality physicians and health professionals, and to international recognition as a leader in distributed, learning-centred, community-engaged education and research.

When the School welcomed its first MD students in September 2005, it became the first new medical school in Canada in over 30 years, and only the second new medical school in North America during a similar period. It is the first Canadian medical school hosted by two universities, over 1,000 kilometres apart. NOSM serves as the faculty of medicine for Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury. The School has developed and delivers a distinctive model of distributed, community-engaged, and socially accountable, medical education. In addition, NOSM is the only Canadian medical school to be established as a stand-alone, not-for-profit corporation, with its own Board of Directors and corporate by-laws.

Across the region, NOSM learners (medical students, residents, and learners from other health disciplines such as rehabilitation sciences, dietetics, and physician assistants), are gaining relevant clinical experience under the guidance of health professionals in community hospitals, clinics, and family practices. The School brings together over 70 community partners, over 1000 clinical, human, and medical sciences stipendiary faculty, and more than 200 employees.

NOSM’s success is very much a result of many partnerships and collaborations with individuals, communities and organizations including Aboriginal and Francophone, hospitals and health services, physicians and other health professionals, universities and colleges, information communication technology organizations, and other medical schools.

With learners distributed across the North, communities have a vital role in welcoming and supporting students so that they develop a better understanding of living and working in a Northern Ontario community.

NOSM is a made-in-the-North solution that is attracting attention from around the world for its innovative model of 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.