Big pharma casts eyes on NOSM.

• Author: Louiseize, Kelly
• Position: NEWS

Innovation in medical education made a giant leap forward as the (NOSM) Northern Ontario School of Medicine and Pfizer Canada launched its first two-minute teaching resource video at the Sudbury campus in late May.

The resource video shows viewers how to prepare and affix a cast on a patient with a broken arm. The portable video is unique in that it can be accessed through a hand-held personal digital assistant or anytime health professionals require assistance in performing medical procedures. It will be particularly useful for northern rural and remote locations where medical staff cannot be present in a classroom setting, but can obtain information through cutting-edge technology.

Pfizer Canada recognizes the need for partnership growth throughout Canada and presented NOSM's founding dean Roger Strasser with a $100,000 cheque that will be spent on the production of new videos. Pfizer is a manufacturer, developer and marketer of numerous prescription medicines. Pfizer invested more than $109 million in research in Ontario in 2005.

The intention is that institutions across the province, country and world will be able to eventually access these videos by clicking onto a virtual procedural skills library via a medical school portal.

Not only will this initiative benefit medical professionals in Ontario, Canada and the world, but it could mark the beginning of a long-term partnership between NOSM and Pfizer.

Pfizer is...