Equity in Focus
Speaker Series
Equity in Focus is an ongoing series that aims to support staff, scientist, and trainee engagement with diverse communities and ensure the responsible use of race, ethnicity, and other health equity data. Please refer to this library of our past session recordings.
Optimizing our work with the Ontario Marginalization Index
Dr. Flora Matheson described changes to the 2021 version of ON-Marg. Trevor van Ingen described considerations for use, including limitations of the census, practicalities when using area-level measures, and the need to recognize that inequities observed using ON-Marg are caused by underlying social/structural factors (context). Laura Ferreira-Legere further outlined the Public Advisory Council’s recommendations for contextualization: read more here
Optimizing our work with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada data
Dr. Susitha Wanigaratne contextualized immigration as a structural determinant of health in Canada. Dr. Hong Lu described the variables in IRCC’s Permanent Resident Database that ICES project teams can use to examine immigration and related constructs. Disaggregation by various intersections is encouraged, as appropriate to study objectives.
Equity research in Canada: an overview and some thoughts about ways forward
Dr. Arjumand Siddiqi presents a primer on key concepts in the scientific literature on health inequities. It is imperative to dismantle the misconception of impacts of biological ‘race’ on health and focus instead on the impacts of socially-defined race, racism, and other social determinants of health.
Equity research in Canada: an overview and some thoughts about ways forward
Dr. Astrid Guttmann and Laura Ferreira-Legere provide an overview of the Guidance Document and Framework for Anti-Racist Approaches to Research and Analytics at ICES. To support implementation, Dr. Arjumand Siddiqi expands on the state of anti-racist research in Canada: it’s the study of “racism” (not “race”). She further describes the importance of race and related data and analytics.
ICES Peoples’ Panel: recommendations for community-driven, anti-racist use of race and related data
ICES convened a Peoples’ Panel of 54 diverse Ontarians to guide our approach to using race and related data. In this session, five participants discuss how the appropriate collection and use of contextualized race and ethnicity-based data can impact access to care and outcomes in equity-deserving communities. View the full report here.
Community-engaged ICES research with Dr. Hilary Brown and Laurie Proulx
Dr. Hilary Brown and Laurie Proulx co-present both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of an ICES project focused on understanding the pregnancy health outcomes and care experiences of people living with disabilities in Ontario. They reflect on how public partners had input and decision-making power during the research process.
Community-engaged ICES research with Dr. Aisha Lofters
Dr. Aisha Lofters shares insights and lessons learned from her experience engaging community with an equity lens in two research projects involving immigrant communities. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing that communities are not homogenous and that their lived expertise is invaluable to contextual richness of the research.
Community-engaged ICES research with Dr. Susitha Wanigaratne and Manvir Bhangu
Dr. Susitha Wanigaratne and Manvir Bhangu describe lessons learned around best practices, successes, and challenges of working in an academic-community partnership. They demonstrate how community partnerships improved the contextual richness of their research and improved the effectiveness of knowledge translation activities. They also demonstrate how community partnerships can amplify the benefits and mitigate the harms of policies that are influenced by research.