A change in name only for the Timmins Family Health Team, but a significant one.
As of now, the word “Academic” is added, making in the Timmins Academic Family Health Team.
Executive director Jennifer McLeod says it recognizes the 13-year-old health team’s role as a teaching centre.
“The physicians have been training medical students and medical residents for probably more than 20 years in Timmins,” she comments. “But it’s just not a role that’s very visible.”
McLeod says providing the training opportunities helps with retention, when the students graduate and come back to Timmins to practice.
She adds that the slight name change also recognizes the team’s specifically northern model of training upcoming doctors in primary care.
“It’s the value of that training onsite with patients for so long that we wanted to acknowledge that work that’s being done and that it’s very much a foundation of what we’re doing as a teaching centre.”