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Northern Ontario’s med school receives $10M gift

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A foundation committed to promoting health care in Canada has made a $10 million gift to NOSM University.

Money from the Temerty Foundation will used to help medical students and to advance and grow social accountability and health equity initiatives.

“In recognition of this transformational gift, NOSM University’s Centre for Social Accountability will be renamed the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity,” the university said in a news release Tuesday.

Arcand was Louise Temerty’s brother, a physician who, among other things, practised rural medicine in northern Quebec. He was dedicated to serving marginalized communities before his death in 1975.

“The impact NOSM University is making to address the health-care inequities in remote, rural Indigenous and Francophone communities is momentous and much needed,” Louise Temerty said in the news release.

“We are pleased to support them in their quest, and I know my brother Gilles would be very proud.”

NOSM University is the only post-secondary institution in Canada that was founded with an explicit social accountability mandate.

Dr. Sarita Verma, NOSM president, vice-chancellor, dean and CEO, said they are grateful for the gift.

“In addition to supporting our students with scholarships and bursaries, this generous donation will help improve health equity for underserved communities through the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity,” Verma said in the news release.

While $3 million of the $10 million will go to the Arcand Centre, the rest of the funds will be used to bolster NOSM University’s student endowment fund to help undergraduate MD students in perpetuity.

“We are thrilled to announce that the $7 million earmarked for the student endowment fund will be matched one-to-one by the FDC Foundation,” Verma said.

“That $14 million will open many doors to future NOSM University students, and they are the future of health care in northern Ontario.” 

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