PRACTISS is a NOAMA-funded project, spearheaded by a small core team from the Marathon Family Health Team in rural Northern Ontario. As both practitioners and educators in a rural setting, we know firsthand the need for - and difficulties related to - the delivery of simulation-based education in low-resource areas. We’re strong believers in the principles of #FOAMed, and are committed to making PRACTISS as open and accessible as possible.
That being said, we couldn’t do this alone. This project was developed with the support of an interdisciplinary advisory group composed of physicians and simulation educators from Northern Ontario and beyond. Their combined expertise and depth of knowledge in delivering simulation-based education has helped us turn PRACTISS into something that we’re sure will be of value to education and continued learning initiatives everywhere.
Eliseo Orrantia is a full scope rural generalist family physician rooted and working in the North West Ontario community of Marathon since 1996. Curious by nature, he is involved in a wide variety of applied rural research and is active in rural health system leadership, working towards improved equity. Now needing to relearn much of what he was previously taught, he is passionate about rural medical education and developing innovations that can improve how one learns in low-resource environments. He is the co-creator of PRACTISS whose genesis occurred during a great winter afternoon of conversation while ice fishing for Splake. His loves are family and self-propelled adventures in the wild.
Dr. Patchett-Marble has practiced rural generalism in Northern Ontario since 2013. He originally completed his MD at the University of Toronto in 2011 and underwent family medicine training at NOSM. He has a longstanding interest in clinical innovation, including design and implementation of the national award-winning HARMS Program and START-IT tool (www.HARMSprogram.ca). He was previously an ACLS instructor and has been engaged in rural education and simulation for both medical learners and hospital staff. He lives in Marathon with his wife and three young children.
Joseph Newing is a full stack developer with 15+ years of hands-on experience designing, developing and implementing applications and solutions using a wide range of technologies and languages. With a strong background in cyber security as well as network engineering and being able to draw on his wide skill set has helped him develop and deploy technological solutions to problems found here in a rural setting.
Hi everyone! I’m Mateo, an Arts & Science student at McMaster, heading into the final chapter of my undergrad. I’m working on PRACTISS, in a sort of Swiss-Army knife role on the project. First and foremost, I take the lead on scenario identification, creation, and inputting. I also work on front-end website things, the supporting materials for PRACTISS, and the other aspects of the platform that go beyond just the scenarios. If it’s on PRACTISS, there’s a good chance I had a hand in making it! My interest in this project stems from my interest in rural medicine and rural policy and service delivery. I’m a huge believer in the creation of free, open-access educational resources - something that is thankfully gaining steam in the medical community. If I’m not at the computer pounding away at the keys for PRACTISS or an essay for school, there’s a good chance you can find me at the gym, fishing, or exploring the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Diana Noseworthy completed her Anesthesiology residency from University of Ottawa/NOSM in 2013. After that, she completed a Fellowship in Simulation and Medical Education at the University of Ottawa and a Masters of Education (MEd) at the University of Cincinnati. She joined the Anesthesiology Department at Health Science North (Sudbury, ON) as Assistant Professor in 2014 and is currently the Simulation Coordinator for the NOSM Anesthesia Residency Program. She is the Chair for the Canadian National Anesthesiology Simulation Curriculum (CanNASC).