The summer school of frontier medicine, CAMSI exchange--Inuvik 1967.

This is a report of an unusual educational venture, jointly sponsored by governmental and non-governmental bodies, which took place in the Northwest Territories in the summer of 1967. Seventy senior medical students drawn from every Canadian medical school and 20 experienced faculty members took part in the exercise. The program consisted of three parts: (a) 10 days at Inuvik for lectures, films and discussions on the prevalent medical conditions, and the social and anthropological problems; (b) seven days of field work in small Indian and Eskimo communities of the Territories when participants in small groups worked with the frontier nurses, saw the medical problems and cultural conditions, met many native people and gathered data for research projects; and (c) three days at Edmonton for summation and evaluation. The long-term effect of such a project cannot be assessed. The challenge of the North and the opportunity for service and research were examined by a well-motivated and intelligent group of medical students with some indications of sincere enthusiasm and sympathetic understanding.