Skip to Main Content

Social Accountability: Welcome

Social Accountability at NOSM University

NOSM University adheres to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of the Social Accountability of Medical Schools as “the obligation to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region and the nation that they have a mandate to serve. The priority health concerns are to be identified jointly by governments, health care organizations, health professionals and the public."  As part of its social accountability mandate, NOSM University has the responsibility to engage stakeholders at all levels of its broad community.

NOSM University Code of Respect Commitment Statement

1. Making decisions rooted in respect, tempered by compassion, anchored in integrity, and aligned with the values, mission, and mandate of NOSM University. We will do this by:

  • Building trust
  • Acting with kindness
  • Listening to understand
  • Respecting differences
  • Valuing transparency
  • Upholding accountability

2. Supporting equity and working to eliminate social injustice. We will do this by:

  • Calling out discrimination in its many forms
  • Acknowledging the inequities deeply embedded in the fabric of society
  • Actively working to dismantle systemic forms of oppression, racism, and colonialism

3. Fostering safe and healthy work and learning environment. We will do this by:

  • Prioritizing psychological safety
  • Supporting and upholding linguistic rights and cultural safety
  • Working to ensure that the culture and curriculum at NOSM University meets the needs of all learners, faculty, and staff through a process of decolonization

4. Supporting sustainability. We will do this by:

  • Recognizing environmental sustainability as intrinsic to the health of Northern Ontario and part of the University’s mandate
  • Incorporating principles of environmental sustainability into our planning, policy, and decision-making
  • Supporting the reduction of individual environmental footprints across the NOSM University community 
  • Working to reduce our environmental impact and promote positive changes

SAFE for Health Institutions

Centre for Social Accountability (NOSM University)

Recent Social Accountability Research by NOSM University Faculty

Anawati, A., & Verma, S. (2021). Commentary: Moral and Ethical Leadership in the Age of Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness and Social Accountability. Healthcare quarterly (Toronto, Ont.), 24(3), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.12927/hcq.2021.26624

Dubé, T., Sebbani, M., Van Maele, L., & Beaulieu, M. D. (2021). COVID-19 pandemic: New avenues for social accountability in health research. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 67(12), 886–888. https://doi.org/10.46747/cfp.6712886

Hogenbirk, J. C., Robinson, D. R., & Strasser, R. P. (2021). Distributed education enables distributed economic impact: the economic contribution of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to communities in Canada. Health economics review, 11(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-021-00317-z

Maar, M., Bessette, N., McGregor, L., Lovelace, A., & Reade, M. (2020). Co-creating Simulated Cultural Communication Scenarios with Indigenous Animators: An Evaluation of Innovative Clinical Cultural Safety Curriculum. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 7, 2382120520980488. https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120520980488

Markham, R., Hunt, M., Woollard, R., Oelke, N., Snadden, D., Strasser, R., Betkus, G., & Graham, S. (2021). Addressing rural and Indigenous health inequities in Canada through socially accountable health partnerships. BMJ open, 11(11), e048053. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048053

Mian, O., Hogenbirk, J. C., Marsh, D. C., Prowse, O., Cain, M., & Warry, W. (2019). Tracking Indigenous Applicants Through the Admissions Process of a Socially Accountable Medical School. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 94(8), 1211–1219. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002636

Murray, R., Cristobal, F., Shrestha, S., Tandinco, F. D., De Maeseneer, J. M., Verma, S., Dharamsi, S., Willems, S., Kaufman, A., Pálsdóttir, B., Neusy, A. J., & Larkins, S. (2022). COVID-19 fosters social accountability in medical education. Rural and remote health, 22(2), 6998. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH6998

Ross, B. M., Cameron, E., & Greenwood, D. (2019). A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Students and Preceptors Taking Part in Remote and Rural Community Experiential Placements During Early Medical Training. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 6, 2382120519859311. https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120519859311

Strasser, R., Hogenbirk, J., Jacklin, K., Maar, M., Hudson, G., Warry, W., Cheu, H., Dubé, T., & Carson, D. (2018). Community engagement: A central feature of NOSM's socially accountable distributed medical education. Canadian medical education journal, 9(1), e33–e43.

Wood, B., Fitzgerald, M., Kendall, C., & Cameron, E. (2021). Integrating socially accountable health professional education and learning health systems to transform community health and health systems. Learning health systems, 5(3), e10277. https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10277