New joint program with NOSM aims to improve ob-gyn access in Northern Ontario

This year, our Department launched a new collaboration with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) that offered the opportunity for two PGY1-Entry residents to enter a joint residency program. They spend half their time training at the University of Toronto and the rest at NOSM, largely in Thunder Bay.

PGY1 residents Dr. Haley Duchesne and Dr. Rylee Mose — the first two trainees accepted into the program — started with us in July. This year, our Department will again welcome up to two residents to the NOSM stream.

The principal goal of the collaborative program is to improve access to ob-gyn care in communities across Northern Ontario.

“We are hopeful that through this program we will contribute to the development of highly trained and highly skilled physicians serving our population in the North and rural/remote parts of our country. We know that training location matters, and we believe that this program will contribute to the supply of physicians in these very under-serviced communities. This collaborative program is enacting our department commitment to advocate for populations in need,” said our Residency Program Director, Dr. Michèle Farrugia.

“We are also working closely with our faculty counterparts at NOSM to help build their capacity as educators so that they will be ready to take on the leadership of a free-standing Ob /Gyn residency program in the very near future.”

In the five-year joint program, residents will also participate in research under expert guidance both in Thunder Bay and Toronto, attend our Academic Half-Day sessions as well as local community educational rounds and journal clubs in Thunder Bay, and gain exposure to the culture and social fabric of Indigenous and Francophone communities in Northern Ontario.

Residents in the joint program have opportunities to travel and provide care in remote communities alongside NOSM faculty members.

“They will learn how to practice medicine far from a large tertiary centre and learn to triage and respond with the resources available to them. They will have exposure to interesting clinical scenarios with a diverse patient population. The residents will be the only specialty residents in the community so they will have access to all the learning opportunities, working 1:1 with faculty at all times,” said Dr. Amber Dudar, who works with Dr. Brienne Bodkin as NOSM’s Residency Program Directors.

“With the joint program, residents have the best of both worlds,” Dudar added. “They get excellent teaching and exposure to complex cases at the Toronto site and then in Thunder Bay, they get hands-on experience in a community setting.

“As they train in the North, they will become skilled to provide care for the unique needs of the Northern population and hopefully develop a goal to continue working in our northern communities for years to come.”

Mose already has significant experience providing medical care in the North, and that is part of what drew her to the new joint program.

"I was born and raised in Thunder Bay. I went to nursing school here, I nursed here, I went to medical school here, and now I spend half my time here for residency," Mose said.

"It is a privilege to be in a position where we can advocate for Northern health. Throughout residency, I think that will happen formally and informally. For example, people in our program in Toronto have been learning more about the geographical barriers, access barriers, and social determinants of health that often affect healthcare in Northern Ontario.

"Being a leader in Northern health is something I feel I have been doing since my nursing years. Advocating for high-quality patient-centred care in Northern Ontario is definitely part of my plan in residency and as a practising physician."