How long can it take OMSAS to process LORs?

[Guest LaGriega]

My referees are all telling me they sent their letters in Oct. Yet OMSAS is still showing 2 as outstanding, and it's nearly 8 weeks later. Anyone else in the same situation? I am actually starting to feel warm and friendly towards AMCAS!

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<threadtitle>MCAT "Received" on OMSAS</threadtitle>

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<username>Aidan</username>

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<title>MCAT "Received" on OMSAS</title>

<pagetext>There is finally movement on the MCAT front -- those friendly people up in Guelph have finally retrieved our scores from the database.

 

Well, it's one step closer! Fingers crossed!

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<username>fish132132</username>

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<pagetext>hi everyone,

just wondering if anyone can help me out regarding grades on transcripts.... im currently in 3rd year undergrad @ MAC.... in 2nd year i got a mark in a particular class that i thought was unfair... so i talked to the prof during the summer and he said he would look it over... well its been 6 months and i keep emailing him and he keeps saying he'll look into it, but that he's really busy... I was just wondering, if by some miracle he manages to get around to looking at my case and changing my mark, when is it too late to get OMSAS to change it for med schools to consider it... thanks a lot any help with this would be much appreciated

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<threadtitle>Withdrawn from a course and changing degree?</threadtitle>

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<username>willdation</username>

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<title>Withdrawn from a course and changing degree?</title>

<pagetext>I am in my 2nd year and I decided to change my degree. To get ahead I am planning on dropping a full-year course and picking up a half course required for my new program. However, If I drop the course a 'WDN' will appear on my transcript (withdrawn with no penalty).

 

Will a WDN affect my chance of acceptance? Is changing a degree looked down upon by medical schools?

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<threadtitle>Article on NOMS medical school</threadtitle>

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<username>Ian Wong</username>

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<title>Article on NOMS medical school</title>

<pagetext>Here's an article just released from the Medical Post, a great medical website which is published biweekly, regarding the NOMS medical school. The article touches briefly on several features of the curriculum, including teleheath, PBL, and incorporation of health topics that are particularly relevant to a career in rural medicine.

 

The original article can be found here:

 

www.medicalpost.com/mpcontent/article.jsp?content=20031125_110804_3192

 

Ian

 

 

November 25, 2003 Volume 39 Issue 43

 

The northern solution

 

The Northern Ontario Medical School, the first new one in Canada in 35 years, intends to use telehealth like no school before

 

By Jennifer Crump

 

SUDBURY, ONT. – The Northern Ontario Medical School (NOMS) is taking full advantage of everything that's been learned about medical education since the Memorial University faculty of medicine was founded 35 years ago. And it is staying true to its vision to train quality doctors for northern and rural Canada.

 

The NOMS curriculum that is being put in place in campuses here and in Thunder Bay is not so much revolutionary as it is innovative, said the school's curriculum co-ordinators, officially known as "theme co-ordinators."

 

These co-ordinators are themselves representative of the school's attempt to achieve a balance—between gender and culture, rural and urban, and practising medicine and academia.

 

Dr. David Boyle, NOMS executive director of project development, is proud NOMS was able to attract numerous candidates for each position. "With two or three very strong candidates for every position, you then have an opportunity to get these other balances right."

 

Staff from rural communities

 

Dr. Sarah Newbery, a family physician in Marathon, Ont., is writing the clinical skills section of the curriculum. She is doing the bulk of her work from the Lake Superior town by communicating with her four fellow co-ordinators and NOMS by phone, e-mail and via video- and teleconferencing.

 

"It is important from a philosophical standpoint that we draw staff and faculty from smaller, rural communities," she said. The experiences of physicians in rural and remote communities will be reflected in the curriculum.

 

Students will be exposed during their schooling to mediums such as telehealth, something many physicians are not exposed to until they are actually in practice.

 

Most of the faculty, and much of the students' clinical training, will take place outside of Thunder Bay and Sudbury. Students will have a six-week placement in an aboriginal community in their first year and two six-week placements in remote communities in the second year.

 

"It is imperative we find a way to make it work," said Dr. Newbery.

 

"In a sense, we (the theme co-ordinators) are testing the technology they will be using to deliver curriculum to students," said Dr. Amadeo Parissenti (PhD), a researcher with the Northeastern Ontario Regional Cancer Society. Dr. Parissenti is theme co-ordinator for an old medical school standby—foundations in medicine—but even this theme is approached slightly differently.

 

While problem-based learning, integrating medical and basic science, was pioneered by McMaster University in Hamilton, NOMS will take it one step further, said Dr. Parissenti. "The majority of the curriculum format will be taught in the context of an actual clinical situation in northern Ontario.

 

"So rather than talk about the structure and behaviour of micro-organisms and how you would combat their growth with, for example an antibiotic, students will be placed in a real situation that might happen in northern Ontario," he said. A real situation, for instance, would be an outbreak of strep throat in a remote, fly-in community.

 

A lifecycle perspective

 

Dr. Richard Denton, a family physician in Kirkland Lake and theme co-ordinator for northern and rural health, said NOMS will approach problem-based learning from a lifecycle perspective, starting with embryology and moving toward geriatrics.

 

There are several themes upon which these real-life examples will be based: addiction, cancer, chronic and injury, violence, occupational health and research.

 

The rationale? "We do have a higher incidence of cancer, a higher percentage of people who are older, a higher rate of injury tied to resource-based industries . . . and addiction is a problem for northern residents," said Dr. Denton.

 

A Kirkland Lake patient, notably, was the first miner to get worker's compensation for cancer caused by his work in the mines. Physicians need to know what to look for, what the issues and potential causes for concern there are in the north, said Dr. Denton.

 

How health care in northern and rural Ontario is delivered and to whom is critical to how medicine will be taught at NOMS, he said.

 

"So when we are looking at someone with diabetes, we might add 'an aboriginal person with diabetes.' Then we might look at the impact of delivering remote care. How is renal failure dealt with in these remote communities where dialysis delivery is problematic and difficult to obtain?"

 

Social and population health

 

Jim Harrold, a health planner from Flesherton, Ont., who is theme co-ordinater for social and population health, said more on the demographic and delivery realities is vital to the training of physicians who will work in northern and rural Ontario. "This isn't Toronto," he said, "where you can just refer them to a specialist a few blocks down the road."

 

Harrold also said he believes the work NOMS is doing will pay off for other medical schools.

 

"NOMS is going to provide leadership in northern and rural medical health across the country—how to incorporate northern and rural aspects in medical education."

 

While other medical schools have been struggling to find a place for medical humanities and medical ethics within existing curriculum, NOMS will be integrating these themes right from the beginning, said Dr. Jaro Kotalik, a clinical professor with McMaster University and director of the Thunder Bay-based Centre for Medical Ethics. Dr. Kotalik is also the theme co-ordinator for personal and professional aspects of medicine.

 

All the theme co-ordinators believe NOMS can change the health landscape in northern Ontario and perhaps in all of rural Canada. The curriculum will focus on producing generalists, those physicians who are capable of being many things to many people: family physicians, general practitioners and general specialists in internal medicine and pediatrics, because these are what northern and rural communities need and can support.

 

The big challenges for NOMS still lie ahead. The accreditation process starts this month and a site visit is anticipated in the spring. Work continues in attracting and hiring staff and faculty not only qualified in their academic training and experience but who also reflect the same core values that NOMS is working so hard to develop, said Dr. Boyle.