SWOMEN Overview:

The Southwestern Ontario Medical Education Network (SWOMEN) is a partnership of over 40 communities throughout Southwestern Ontario, including Windsor, that provide Rural Regional medical education and training experience to undergraduate and postgraduate trainees from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Over 300 University of Western Ontario faculty-appointed preceptor physicians, located in communities throughout Windsor and Southwestern Ontario, currently provide both core and elective training that meet the educational goals and objectives set out by governing bodies such as the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Canadian College of Family Physicians.

Funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, SWOMEN's mandate is to provide medical education outside the traditional Academic Health Sciences Centre that is located in London. Southwestern Ontario, like many areas of Canada, is medically under-serviced by physicians. A strategic benefit of high quality community rotations is that it affords trainees the opportunity to see community practice outside that of the urban academic setting. SWOMEN can share many instances where graduates from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry have returned to communities in which they trained to set up permanent practice.

In the past year, SWOMEN has grown to provide educational experiences to over 400 medical trainees in eleven different programs.