The health needs and experiences of Black Canadians are vastly underrepresented in medical and health-sciences curricula.
With 3.5 per cent of Canada鈥檚 total population, excluding and misrepresenting this information is a problem 鈥� one that is affecting the health of Black populations across the country.
Led by 听at 国民彩票 and from the University of Toronto, a community of Black scholars and practitioners is committed to changing this.
Established in 2019 by Drs. Dryden and Nnorom, the is working to transform medical and health professional education with the goal of improving the health of Black communities across Canada. With representation from various institutions throughout the country, BHEC aims to dismantle anti-Black racism in healthcare while creating change within health education to equip professionals to provide accurate, culturally safe, and culturally informed care.
Dr. Dryden, who is the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, and Dr. Nnorom, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and then-Black health theme lead for Temerty, connected in early 2019 as the only two Black theme leads in Canadian medical schools.
鈥淎t that time, having the Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies housed in the Faculty of Medicine was a notable thing in medicine,鈥� recalls Dr. Dryden. 鈥淲hen Dr. Nnorom and I had our first meeting we asked ourselves, 鈥楬ow are we going to intervene in medical schools around Black health? How are we going to support medical learners?鈥欌��
Knowing they needed to make a difference in education, the idea for the Black Health Primer was born.
Learn more about BHEC's origins:听National research collaborative takes action
Supporting Black health
The Primer, which is the first of its kind in Canada, began to take shape in the summer of 2019. Drs. Dryden and Nnorom were struggling to get faculties of medicine to engage in conversation about the idea when the pandemic hit and the murder of Mr. George Floyd happened in Minnesota. Suddenly, conversation and support around Black lives and Black health became of interest. The two Black health leaders found themselves at many tables discussing the need for what at the time they were calling Black medical education on Black health, systemic anti-Black racism and structural white supremacy.听听
They sat down with their respective deans, Dr. David Anderson at 国民彩票 and Dr. Trevor Young at Temerty, as well as Dr. Adalsteinn Brown at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. In 2021, the three schools provided them with a million dollars in funding, allowing them to hire staff, engage in research, create committees, and hire writers and medical education pedagogical specialists. It was during these discussions that BHEC was formalized.
鈥淲e thought we should name it the Black Health Education Collaborative and really look across healthcare,鈥� says Dr. Dryden. 鈥淎nd we began our early work with the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) to push to have Black learning objectives included for all medical learners.鈥�
What is the Primer, exactly?
Four years later, the MCC is in the process of approving the Black Health Learning objectives, and the BHEC is preparing to launch the Black Health Primer, s