Welcome
Local Education Groups Across Northern Ontario
Local Education Group (LEG)
A LEG is a group of physician clinical faculty who have joined together to assume responsibility for the provision of a significant, identifiable component(s) of NOSM U's current academic mandate. LEGS work closely with the NOSM U Undergraduate and Postgraduate Associate Deans to ensure the academic/curriculum needs of the learners are met. To date, 52 LEGs have been implemented and approved in Northern Ontario.
Purpose
The purpose of the LEGs is to provide the physician clinical faculty with an organizational structure to address the challenges of balancing the demands for the provision of academics and clinical services. It is also intended to facilitate the ongoing delivery of the NOSM U academic mandate by the physician clinical faculty.
Background
Alternative Funding Plans (AFPs) in Ontario are funded by the Ministry of Health to support the clinical teaching activities of physicians, thus ensuring sufficient clinical learning opportunities for the next generation of physicians. Although AFPs have existed at other Ontario medical schools since the 1990s, Ontario's newest medical school, NOSM U, has a unique mandate and mission to train physicians for rural and northern communities.
NOSM U's distributed medical education (DME) model - with two campuses more than 1,000km apart in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, and clinical learning taking place in over 70 communities across northern Ontario - indicated the need for a different approach to supporting clinical faculty. Instead of a single centralized governing body to administer the funds, the NOAMA AFP is implemented through Local Education Groups (LEGs). LEGs are self-organized groups of NOSM U clinical faculty who are responsible for providing selected medical education services at the undergraduate and/or postgraduate level. LEGs also support other academic activities such as professional development, research and clinical innovation. An independent organization, the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association (NOAMA), administers the LEGs Initiative, through a negotiated agreement between the MOH, the OMA, NOSM U, and the PCTA.
Groups interested in applying to be a LEG
Contact Michelle Labate at mlabate@noama.ca for information on how to apply.
LEG LEADS AND ADMINISTRATION
A list of the approved LEGs, along with the contact information of their respective LEG Lead(s) and Administrative Assistant(s) is available for all LEG members: