title: Impact of the rural pipeline in medical education: practice locations of recently graduated family physicians in Ontario.
abstract: The "rural pipeline" suggests that students educated in rural, or other underserviced areas, are more likely to establish practices in such locations. It is upon this concept that the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) was founded. Our analysis answers the following question: Are physicians who were educated at NOSM more likely to practice in rural and northern Ontario compared with physicians who were educated at other Canadian medical schools?
  
  
  
  We used data from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. We compared practice locations of certified Ontario family physicians who had graduated from NOSM vs. other Canadian medical schools in 2009 or later. We categorized the physicians according to where they completed their undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) training, either at NOSM or elsewhere. We used logistic regression models to determine if the location of UG and PG training was associated with rural or northern Ontario practice location.
  
  
  
  Of the 535 physicians examined, 67 had completed UG and/or PG medical education at NOSM. Over two thirds of physicians with any NOSM education were practicing in northern areas and 25.4% were practicing in rural areas of Ontario compared with those having no NOSM education, with 4.3 and 10.3% in northern and rural areas, respectively. Physicians who graduated from NOSM-UG were more likely to have practices located in rural Ontario (OR = 2.57; p = 0.014) whereas NOSM-PG physicians were more likely to have practices in northern Ontario (OR = 57.88; p < 0.001).
  
  
  
  NOSM education was associated with an increased likelihood of practicing in rural (NOSM-UG) and northern (NOSM-PG) Ontario.
authors.affiliation: School of Rural and Northern Health, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Rd., Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada. ewenghofer@laurentian.ca.|Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. ewenghofer@laurentian.ca.
authors.forename: Elizabeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Wenghofer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hogenbirk
authors.affiliation: Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Timony
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004501:Education, Medical; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012424:Rural Population; D012577:Schools, Medical
keywords: Canada; Family practice; Medically underserved areas; Northern Ontario School of Medicine; Rural practice; Social responsibility