• John C Hogenbirk, Patrick E Timony, Margaret G French, Roger Strasser, Raymond W Pong, Catherine Cervin, and Lisa Graves.
• Can Fam Physician. 2016 Mar 1; 62 (3): e138-45.

ObjectiveTo assess the effect of different levels of exposure to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine's (NOSM's) distributed medical education programs in northern Ontario on FPs' practice locations.DesignCross-sectional design using longitudinal survey and administrative data.SettingCanada.ParticipantsAll 131 Canadian medical graduates who completed FP training in 2011 to 2013 and who completed their undergraduate (UG) medical degree or postgraduate (PG) residency training or both at NOSM.InterventionExposure to NOSM's medical education program at the UG (n = 49) or PG (n = 31) level or both (n = 51).Main Outcome MeasuresPrimary practice location in September of 2014.ResultsApproximately 16% (21 of 129) of FPs were practising in rural northern Ontario, 45% (58 of 129) in urban northern Ontario, and 5% (7 of 129) in rural southern Ontario. Logistic regression found that more rural Canadian background years predicted rural practice in northern Ontario or Ontario, with odds ratios of 1.16 and 1.12, respectively. Northern Canadian background, sex, marital status, and having children did not predict practice location. Completing both UG and PG training at NOSM predicted practising in rural and northern Ontario locations with odds ratios of 4.06 to 48.62.ConclusionApproximately 61% (79 of 129) of Canadian medical graduate FPs who complete at least some of their training at NOSM practise in northern Ontario. Slightly more than a quarter (21 of 79) of these FPs practise in rural northern Ontario. The FPs with more years of rural background or those with greater exposure to NOSM's medical education programs had higher odds of practising in rural northern Ontario. This study shows that NOSM is on the road to reaching one of its social accountability milestones.

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