Public health doctor Hadal El-Hadi
For helping Black Canadian physicians connect and thrive
In May 2020, Hadal El-Hadi, a resident in the Public Health and Preventive Medicine program at the University of British Columbia, created Black Physicians of Canada (BPC), a nonprofit that unites and empowers Black physicians. As a first-generation immigrant from Sudan, El-Hadi is familiar with the challenges of being a Black physician. After the murder of George Floyd, she decided to partner with Teresa Semalulu, a rheumatology fellow at the University of Toronto, to create BPC. It was a pivotal moment for me. I realized that our society can longer ignore anti-Black racism, she says.Sometimes the physicians who require the most support might be the sole Black doctor in their region or city. Recruitment and retention are significant obstacles, says El-Hadi, and thats related to workplace microaggressions and volatility for marginalized practitioners. (For example, racialized and ethnic-minority med students are less likely to win academic awards or receive positive evaluation letters than their white peers.) A more diverse medical system is better for patients, too. Underrepresentation affects morbidity and mortality of Black patients, El-Hadi says.There are better outcomes for Black patients when they are treated by Black doctors. This October, BPC hosted their first in-person conference, I Am Because You Are: Celebrating Being Black in Medicine, in Toronto. In 2024, BPC will offer a free mentorship program for residents, fellows and early-career physicians. BPC gives hope to Black Canadians that things are changing for the better, despite how slow it may seem, El-Hadi says. Ideally, this ripple effect will continue for generations to come. Angela Serednicki(Related: Incredible Black Women Who Are Changing Canadian Health Care)