Time for action: Calling all BPAO/BRPO Members!

Our community needs us, our learners need us and we need each other!

A special message from our BPAO Outreach Lead, Dr. Mojola Omole & our President Dr. Onye Nnorom  

Dear BPAO members, 

This summer has shown us that if we are to dismantle anti-Black racism, we must realize that resistance and resilience are team sports – our learners need us, our community needs us and we need each other! See the list and sign-up opportunities below for all of us to engage in community outreach, promote Black physician referrals and renew our commitment to mentoring our learners.

1. Speakers needed!

BPAO receives speaker requests very frequently. These requests range from community groups, post-secondary institutions and leading corporations in Canada.  During this time, virtual events have become the new wave of reaching out to larger groups of people who are interested in various levels of expert information that BPAO members will be able to provide regarding specialized areas and career experiences. 

We have the opportunity to reach out and make BPAO more visible to the professionals and community members that need what we can offer as a collective. 

With that being said, we would like to share some upcoming opportunities. These listed speaker requests require a speaker to provide their expertise and experiences to specific groups that have requested that a BPAO member be a part of their event.

Please see the available opportunity list by clicking here and if you are interested, please fill out the required information.

Even if you are not interested/available for this list of requests, please let us know if we can contact you for other talks in the future.  If you are interested in providing your expertise whether it be a speciality or in general regarding the medical process, Please click here to provide your information.

Once BPAO receives your information, we will keep you on our list and we will reach out to you if requests are received that fit your speciality. 

2. Mentors and Career-day speakers needed!

BPAO is in the early stages of developing a mentorship program for our medical learners and continues to do outreach talks for pre-medical students. If you are interested in learning more about mentorship opportunities to support Black medical trainees (e.g. medical students, residents, fellows) please click here.

If you are interested in giving talks to high school/university students who aspire to a career in medicine, please sign up to our list by clicking here

3. Black patients requesting Black doctors

BPAO receives regular requests for Black primary care providers and for Black physicians specialists. There is pretty substantial international evidence at this point that Black patients have a greater likelihood of having a better therapeutic bond, better trust and outcomes with Black providers, and we know anecdotally that many clinics like TAIBU CHC and Women’s  Health in Womens’ Hands were created because of the negative experiences of anti-Black racism/biases that our communities experience. CPSO does not collect race based data on physicians so we are fulfilling this role in the interim, as we hope that they will embark on this work in the future.

BPAO continues to honour the requests of Black patients who contact us for a Black physician. BPAO informs patients of the names and specialties of Black physicians who have consented for their race to be shared. 

When BPAO receives Black physician requests with specified specialties and general practitioners, we make it clear that we do not do referrals and we encourage them to seek any other information via the CPSO website. 

This is an act of solidarity with the Black community and we encourage you to let patients know your race. Our list of physicians who have consented to this process is now out of date/incomplete and we would like to update our records to be inclusive of your consent to share your race when community members reach out to us.

If you consent to us informing a Black patient who contacts BPAO for a Black physician (e.g. Black family doctor, Obs/Gyn, pediatrician, etc) your first and last name, specialty and city of practice please click here. Patients would be encouraged to seek any other details via the CPSO website.

How can we help you?

BPAO is embarking on strategic planning! We are deciding on our priorities for the next 5 years and we want to know how we can better serve you, our members! Please be on the lookout for our BPAO members survey and/or stakeholder survey. We are keen to find out new and better ways that we can improve the lives of Black physicians, learners and improve health equity for Black Canadian communities. Stay tuned!