Date Published | Sept. 20, 2007

Great accomplishments have their origins in the enterprising spirit of men and women who tirelessly pursue dreams that others might dismiss as unrealistic and impractical. Who would have thought 20 years ago that Northern Ontario would evolve as a centre of expertise in genetic research and a pioneer in distributed medical education?

Thunder Bay’s $50 million Molecular Medicine Research Centre, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine with its two campuses in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie and the North’s role in fueling the development of one of the world’s most extensive telemedicine networks all contribute to a critical mass of expertise and the emergence of a distinct community of interest.

As publishers and as Northern Ontarians sharing the entrepreneurial spirit of those who championed the establishment of the Molecular Medicine Research Centre and a School of Medicine, we resolved to do our part to fuel the development of the region’s growing health-care cluster.

Spread out as we are from the Quebec to the Manitoba border in five major population centres and dozens of smaller communities, it’s important for us to have a medium like the Northern Ontario Medical Journal to keep in touch, share best practices and learn from each other. In doing so, we also promote the North to young physicians and health-care professionals as a progressive, pioneering community of practice and a great place to call home.

In the short time that I have immersed myself in the region’s health-care community, I have become convinced that there is more than enough happening in Northern Ontario to justify a vibrant, informative medical journal of our own.

However, we can’t do it alone. For the Northern Ontario Medical Journal to prosper, we need your co-operation and support. If you are doing something new and interesting that impacts on the health and well-being of Northern Ontarians, don’t be shy. Share your best practices and successes with your colleagues in the health-care community across the region. Pick up the phone. E-mail us. Let us know how we’re doing. With your help, the Northern Ontario Medical Journal can serve as a model for a groundbreaking publication that brings together physicians, researchers, nurses, administrators and allied health-care professionals to learn from each other and meet the health-care challenges of the 21st century.

Norm Tollinsky
ntollinsky@nomj.ca
Editor