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Canadian researchers are joining forces to reform health and medical education to address implicit racial biases and the impact of anti-Black racism on the delivery of care across the country.

OmiSoore Dryden, the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Studies and an associate professor in Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine, serves as co-lead of the Black Health Education Collaborative (BHEC), along with Dr. Onye Nnorom, a family and public-health physician and president of the Black Physicians' Association of Ontario. Dalhousie and U of T contributed $1.7 million in seed funding for BHEC.

They will look at the clinical experiences of Black people in Canada and incorporate those into a primer to support health and medical educators. That will be built around first-person accounts of patient experiences in a bid to also tackle racist stereotypes around Black population health.

BHEC is currently working with the Medical Council of Canada to develop learning objectives regarding Black health care and clinical experiences – meaning that medical students will need to understand and be educated in the specific experiences Black people in Canada have in the health system.

Dr. Dryden is available to discuss this unique initiative and how the team hopes to transform medical and health education across Canada by changing the curriculum and creating resources for instructors teaching in medicine, nursing and other health professions.

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Media contact:
Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Communications, Marketing and Creative Services
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca