An assessment of the barriers regarding international medical doctors' path to licensure in Ontario and the initiatives put forth to tackle these challenges

Upon arrival to Canada, International Medical Doctors (IDMs) must undergo a lengthy and complex process in becoming accredited in order to be able to practice in this country, IMDs have historically contributed substantially to the Canadian healthcare system and have great potential to tackle the current physician shortages in the provinces. However, although they have significant skills and experience and can be regarded as a fairly obvious resource to address the physician shortage, their potential remains underutilized. Therefore, this major research paper will focus on the province of Ontario to examine some of the barriers IMDs face in their path to re-entering their profession and outline and assess some of the initiatives and programs put forth to tackle some of these challenges faced by IMDs in this province.

An assessment of the barriers regarding international medical doctors' path to licensure in Ontario and the initiatives put forth to tackle these challenges

Upon arrival to Canada, International Medical Doctors (IDMs) must undergo a lengthy and complex process in becoming accredited in order to be able to practice in this country, IMDs have historically contributed substantially to the Canadian healthcare system and have great potential to tackle the current physician shortages in the provinces. However, although they have significant skills and experience and can be regarded as a fairly obvious resource to address the physician shortage, their potential remains underutilized. Therefore, this major research paper will focus on the province of Ontario to examine some of the barriers IMDs face in their path to re-entering their profession and outline and assess some of the initiatives and programs put forth to tackle some of these challenges faced by IMDs in this province.

An assessment of the barriers regarding international medical doctors' path to licensure in Ontario and the initiatives put forth to tackle these challenges

Upon arrival to Canada, International Medical Doctors (IDMs) must undergo a lengthy and complex process in becoming accredited in order to be able to practice in this country, IMDs have historically contributed substantially to the Canadian healthcare system and have great potential to tackle the current physician shortages in the provinces. However, although they have significant skills and experience and can be regarded as a fairly obvious resource to address the physician shortage, their potential remains underutilized. Therefore, this major research paper will focus on the province of Ontario to examine some of the barriers IMDs face in their path to re-entering their profession and outline and assess some of the initiatives and programs put forth to tackle some of these challenges faced by IMDs in this province.

An assessment of the barriers regarding international medical doctors' path to licensure in Ontario and the initiatives put forth to tackle these challenges

Upon arrival to Canada, International Medical Doctors (IDMs) must undergo a lengthy and complex process in becoming accredited in order to be able to practice in this country, IMDs have historically contributed substantially to the Canadian healthcare system and have great potential to tackle the current physician shortages in the provinces. However, although they have significant skills and experience and can be regarded as a fairly obvious resource to address the physician shortage, their potential remains underutilized. Therefore, this major research paper will focus on the province of Ontario to examine some of the barriers IMDs face in their path to re-entering their profession and outline and assess some of the initiatives and programs put forth to tackle some of these challenges faced by IMDs in this province.

Inspiring Rural High School Students to Consider Careers in Medicine and the Health Professions

The United States is experiencing a physician shortage and rural areas are especially impacted. Programs exist to recruit college and medical students to work in rural areas, but few programs are focused on the high school “pipeline.” Medical students, residents and physicians who have lived in rural areas are more likely to practice in those areas. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a workshop to educate rural high school students about preparing for health professions careers. Evaluations of the workshop were positive and indicated increased knowledge and interest in careers in medicine and health professions. It is somewhat promising that even a brief educational program has the potential to increase interest of rural high school students to pursue medical or health professions careers, and perhaps ultimately increase the number of those practicing in rural areas. The authors discuss limitations and suggest changes for future workshop presentations.

Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: a narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA

A narrative review was conducted to examine the current state of the utilisation of telemedicine amid the current COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate the benefits of continuing telemedicine usage in the future. A literature review was performed for articles related to telemedicine. Databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library and Ovid MEDLINE were searched. Three reviewers independently performed article selection based on relevance to our topic. We included all articles between 1990 and 2020 related to telemedicine using the following keywords: ‘telemedicine’, ‘telehealth’, ‘policy’, ‘COVID-19’, ‘regulation’, ‘rural’, ‘physical examination’, ‘future’. A total of 60 articles were identified, and through careful selection we narrowed the final number of articles to 42 based on relevance to our topic. Telemedicine has been rapidly evolving over the past several decades. Issues with regulation and reimbursement have prevented its full immersion into the healthcare system. During the current pandemic, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have expanded access to telemedicine services. The advantages of telemedicine moving forward include its cost-effectiveness, ability to extend access to specialty services and its potential to help mitigate the looming physician shortage. Disadvantages include lack of available technological resources in certain parts of the country, issues with security of patient data, and challenges in performing the traditional patient examination. It is critically important that changes are made to fully immerse telemedicine services into the healthcare landscape in order to be prepared for future pandemics as well as to reap the benefits of this service in the future.

The Expanding Role of the Oncology Pharmacist

Although oncology pharmacists have been involved in the care of cancer patients for over 50 years, the role of the oncology pharmacist continues to expand. Initially, pharmacists were primarily based within either an inpatient or outpatient pharmacy setting and their work focused on providing the necessary safety checks to dispense cancer-related medications. With technology freeing up pharmacists from dispensing functions and advanced training in direct patient care (e.g., oncology residency, oncology fellowship), the oncology pharmacist was able to provide direct patient care at the bedside or within the clinic where treatment decisions are made by the healthcare team. In fact, they have become integral members of the healthcare team. This Issue describes several expanding roles of oncology pharmacists in stem cell transplant, hematology, gastrointestinal oncology, and precision genomics, as well as oncology pharmacists preventing a reduction in cancer patient visits as the oncology physician shortage occurs. Oncology pharmacists are an integral part of the cancer care team; their value has been documented in several studies, and is highlighted in this Issue. We encourage the profession to continue to document their value so that one day each patient can have an oncology pharmacist as part of their cancer care team.