2. Presenter
Disclosure
I have no conflict of
interest to disclose
I have received funding from
Monash University School of
Rural Health for this trip.
3. What is the best way?
North West:
Quantity
Quality Relevance
No medical school
Wits and University of Limpopo (Medunsa) train
medical students in the province
North West University has health sciences faculty
4. Based on sabbatical in US & Canada
Visits to:
University of Washington (UW) WWAMI programme,
Seattle and north-western states
University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC
Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Sudbury
and Thunder Bay, ONT
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John,
NF
5. Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in
Sudbury, Canada: physician assistant and
occupational therapy students:
contracted by another University to provide a period
of training through the facilities at and linked to
NOSM, offering supervision and support.
engaged with the clinical element of the programs
offer appropriate training (primary care orientated,
community based and rural focused)
6. NOSM:
Collaboration between 2 universities, viz. Laurentian
University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder
Bay
Separate corporation wholly owned by the two Universities
Dean reports to 2 senates and boards (councils)
Two main sites for the medical school, about 1000km apart
Half the class at each site
Expertise can be drawn in from both sites
Major use of technology
Principle: a medical school does not require a single
university or a single site
7. WWAMI Program (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana
and Idaho)
5 states in the North West represent 28% of the US land mass,
but only 3% of the population; only one major city = Seattle.
UW School of Medicine is only medical school for these 5
states
Distributed model
Students selected from the 5 states by home states
Students have first basic science year in each of home states
Go to Seattle for their second year
Third and fourth years involve rotations throughout the 5 states
(some specific funding programs may allocate students to
specific locations): rotations can be done in many sites and
thus one can use particular sites for their strengths.
Partnership between UW and a home state university, to
support local training, especially in 1st year
8. UBC: entire 4 year training in a satellite campus.
Collaboration with a local University, such as the University of
Northern British Colombia; degree is jointly awarded between the
local university and UBC
3 such partnerships with regional universities in more underserved
areas of the province
UBC does the accreditation, provides the curriculum, ensures the
standards, sets the assessment in partnership with the local
university, etc., but all the training happens at the local site
Advantages:
students trained in the context for the context
Spared expense of going to study in Vancouver
More likely to stay and work in the local area.
Positive benefits for local towns/communities
Evolution of the WWAMI concept?
9. Collaboration is possible: vison is the key
Driven by:
Human resource constraints (equity issue)
Need for relevant clinical exposure
Educational imperatives
Requires out-of-the box thinking and flexibility
Basis is finding contextually appropriate solutions
Common to all models:
Community-based teaching and distributed
learning
10. 1. contracted training model
2. regional training model (WWAMI)
3. developing a separate program (UBC)
4. stand-alone medical school (which could still be a
partnership, as with NOSM)
11. Presented report in December 2013
Recommendations incorporated into proposal on
developing a health professions school by a provincial
task team (3rd one I have bene art of!!) in May 2014
Presentation to provincial meeting on tertiary services
on 10 October 2014, chaired by provincial Minister of
health:
Agreed to take concept to Provincial Executive
Set up a joint committee on heath professional training
in province
