The Future
Will See You Now
Northern Ontario is in a health-care crisis.
The people of Northern Ontario—some 800,000—need more than 350 doctors just to fill immediate shortages. It’s hard to imagine, but statistically, people in the North live shorter, less healthy lives than people in the south.
As Canada’s first-ever independent medical university, NOSM University is doing everything it can to help marshal doctors to where they’re needed most.
NOSM University has a plan.
We need your help.
We need to lighten the tuition load for our students, and even the playing field for Northern learners.
Our students graduate with nearly twice the debt of students at other medical schools in Canada. It’s not because we’re more expensive: it’s because we recruit from the North, for the North, and typically, people in the region don’t have access to the same financial and social means as students in the south.
Together, we will raise the first $50 million for NOSM University’s Student Endowment Fund.
How your donation helps.
When you give to NOSM University you are:
- Telling 800,000 Ontarians that their health matters
- Championing Indigenous and Francophone health equity
- Backing future health-care workers who are more likely to stay in the North
- Investing in a lean and fiscally accountable non-profit university
- Establishing an endowment that will benefit students in perpetuity
- Supporting a world-class medical and research university
- In the vanguard of people working toward health justice for Northern Ontario
This is about you.
No matter where you live, you deserve the dignity of equitable access to culturally competent health care from someone who understands your unique circumstances. That includes people who live in the North.
This is where we come in.
NOSM University, alongside more than 90 community partners, has created innovative, bespoke learning opportunities and partnerships designed to help fill specific gaps in rural, Indigenous, Francophone and other underserved areas of the North.
The future of Northern health care
is what we make it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is NOSM University new?
Yes and no. Although we became Canada’s first independent medical university in 2022, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) has been producing important Northern research and world-class health professionals since 2005. As of June 2022, we have graduated 838 MDs, 65 of whom are Indigenous, and 171 of whom are Francophone. More than half of these health-care practitioners have stayed in Northern Ontario. In addition, 769 residents have completed training in our residency programs, and 178 registered dietitians have earned credentials here. We estimate that about 340,000 people have been helped by a NOSM University graduate so far.
Q: What are you doing differently than other medical schools?
We were purpose-built to address the doctor shortage in Northern Ontario. We are decentralized, meaning we can keep capital expenses down, and instead focus on student immersion in communities across the region. We are tackling the problem of health injustice in Indigenous communities head-on, and, to do so, we admit the highest rate of Indigenous students in the country. In fact, we have also established Canada’s first Centre for Social Accountability. Through policy leadership and advocacy, research and innovation, and education that better aligns medical training with community needs, the Centre is becoming a frontrunner in the improvement of sustainable equity, access, and health outcomes.
Q: Can’t students pay their own way?
Our students can take on sizeable bank loans to cover the cost of a medical education. However, many of those who go on to practise in the North ultimately make less money than their southern counterparts. Northern doctors have to “handle it all,” but operate under the same billing structure as doctors in dense urban areas who are surrounded by complementary medical resources that alleviate the care load. Helping to offset the cost of our programs is one way to incentivize students to stay in the North.
Q: I live in Southern Ontario. How does this problem impact me?
Health injustice is happening in your own backyard. Right now, thousands of Ontarians are experiencing a health-care crisis. The North is in desperate need of more than 350 doctors and other health-care workers. This is an ongoing, multi-generational issue in the face of a grave truth: people in Northern Ontario are chronically sicker and live shorter lives than people in the south. We have the highest rates in the province for addictions, mental health, cardiac disease, cancer, and diabetes. And on top of food insecurity, boil-water advisories and infrastructure hardships, this rampant health-care injustice is amplified in First Nations communities. This is a social justice issue of which we all own a piece.
