First time regional event attracts interest from across the North.

Health care sectors including doctors, nurses, administration and students converge for MEDNorth's first conference. Located at the Radisson Hotel and nearby Rainbow Theatres, the event featured nine daytime speaking events and an evening gala with renowned Canadian comedian Rick Mercer.

"We wanted to bring people from across Northern Ontario together in a venue where they could leverage new and existing relationships, and learn not only from each other, but also from our various presenters," says Patricia Mills, publisher of Northern Ontario Business and the new Northern Ontario Medical Journal.

"There have been numerous changes throughout the medical field in Northern Ontario in the last four years, and it's important to try and bring everyone together from our bigger Northern cities as well as the more rural areas in this part of the province."

Having had an instrumental role in some of these changes through his role as founding Dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Dr. Roger Strasser says the event is key to highlighting regional achievements.

"It's very exciting to have this conference, because it really puts a spotlight on health care and new developments in health care in Northern Ontario. At the school, we have a focus on innovation and developing health services to meet the needs of the people and communities in Northern Ontario, so it's a really neat fit between us and the conference."

This Northern focus is particularly important, given the need for people from the region to share their perspectives within the region itself, says Joe Pilon, senior vice-president, Hopital Regional de Sudbury Regional Hospital.

"We tend to go to Toronto to do these things, and to be able to have something in Northern Ontario where you can meet health care professionals of like-minded interests and problems is much better, from my perspective."

Included among MEDNorth's speaking sessions were discussions on cancer care, neuroscience and telemedicine.

A discussion on cardiovascular care developments also took place, conducted by Dr. Michael Farkouh, director, Mount Sinai Heart Clinical Trials Unit and associate professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Having grown up in Sudbury, Dr. Farkouh says he is well aware of the need for events like MEDNorth.

"Regional issues in Northern Ontario are quite different from those you see in the south, and it's very important to have the ability to get together like this and focus specifically on these kinds of topics," Dr. Farkouh says.

"It's all part of awareness and getting people to understand why we do what we do, and trying to bring it down to a grassroots level. We need to get across that we have to focus our resources on prevention, because we're killing ourselves and if this continues, we're not going to have a health care system."

A similar focus on communicating ideas to other professionals in the healthcare field drew many others to MEDNorth, including Roberta Reist.

"Awareness about the field of long-term care is so very important, and that's a large part of why I'm here today," says Reist, community relations manager, Southwind Retirement Residence. "A lot of people think that retirement homes and nursing homes are the same thing, and I've seen a lot of people in nursing homes that should be in retirement homes, and vice-versa. Being able to directly convey to health care professionals the importance of distinguishing between the two, and clarifying those differences to patients, is important."

Also part of the event was a trade show, featuring 21 booths from across the country and throughout the industry.

"Northern Ontario has a growing medical community, and from our point of view, because we're in the investment service industry, we want to support those initiatives," says Terry Dyck, a senior investment advisor with Wellington West, who had a booth at the event. "This is one way we can do it, by getting people together and getting them to feel like they're part of the bigger picture here, so it's a good conference. Of course, networking also is a crucial element of being here, and we've made a lot of great contacts here today."

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This premiere issue of the Northern Ontario Medical Journal is a natural extension of the evolving health-care community in Northern Ontario.

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Focused on the people, places, institutions and research across the North, it is meant to be a morale booster, an information portal and a means of bringing the northern region together through stories of innovation, success, challenges and solutions.

Profiling the work by Dr. Amadeo Parissenti and the team at Sudbury Regional Hospital's Regional Cancer Program--innovative research that is shedding new light on why some patients respond well to chemotherapy drugs while others do not--is one example of the type of stories covered in this premiere issue.

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And the Northern Ontario School of Medicine welcoming its first group of residents is surely music to many ears here in the North.

There is an interesting article by Dr. David Posen on why it is so very important for health-care workers to learn successful stress management practices and achieve a healthy work -life balance.

With the creation of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the Thunder Bay and Sudbury regional cancer centres, the modernization of our largest hospitals and the emergence of exciting technologies and procedures, there is no better time for a publication that brings the region's medical community together.

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By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business

THANK YOU

MedNorth sends a hearty thank you to all of our sponsors, tradeshow participants and endorsers.