Clinical research in the Canadian North: an overview of a decade of participation in the McGill University-Baffin Zone Project.

Chronic otitis media and sensorineural hearing loss secondary to noise are major health problems today among the Canadian Inuit (Eskimo). The complexities of conducting clinical research in a region greater in surface area than all of Western Europe are significant. The problems imposed by logistics, weather, lack of continuity in administrative support and the cultural differences encountered and what has been achieved are reviewed.