BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Celebrating Innovation and excellence. Meet registrant, medical trailblazer and EDI leader Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu

At age 10, Kannin Osei-Tutu suffered an eye injury that could have turned him blind.

With no ophthalmologists in Terrace, B.C., and a concerned family weighing their options, he was flown to Vancouver to meet Dr. Harris, a physician that led the young boy to one day influence the social and cultural landscape of medicine in Canada.

“I was so scared, being a 10-year-old kid,” Osei-Tutu said. “He made me feel reassured and comforted, and that made me want to do that for somebody else in the future. That was the moment that I decided that I wanted to go into medicine.”

Today, Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu, MD, MSc., CCFP is an accomplished physician, academic, and leader in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and anti-Black racism initiatives. He is also at the forefront of developing programs that improve licensure and learning processes. His efforts are recognized nationwide, and he is determined to continue disrupting the status quo for greater equity by inspiring others to engage in systemic transformation.

Family and cultural influence

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Osei-Tutu was the child of Ghanaian parents who emigrated to Canada, with his father and mother arriving in 1959 and 1960 respectively. Both were staunch activists in the west African country but left during political unrest. After his father, a trailblazing retired urologist, completed his surgical sub-specialization in Winnipeg, the family settled in the small town of Terrace, B.C., where the younger Osei-Tutu spent his formative years.

“My parents, particularly my mom, value compassion and they remain committed to caring for others as a way of life,” Dr. Osei-Tutu said. “Even to this day, she calls herself “the real doctor” in the family and always tries to keep me informed about Ghanaian medicinal practices and concepts of wellness.”

Dr. Osei-Tutu is an accomplished scholar who received his Master of Science from Dalhousie University in 1997 and later completed three years of plastic and reconstructive surgery and a family medicine residency at the University of Toronto. He received certification from the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2010, became licensed with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta in 2011, and currently practices in Calgary.

Redefining standards

Nowadays, in a world where EDI in licensing and regulation is front-and centre, Dr. Osei-Tutu has been leading inclusionary efforts for some time. He currently serves as National CANRAC (Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium) Chair of the Anti-BlackRacism Accreditation Working Group (AWG-ABR), which advocates for new standards with explicit language and policy promoting anti-Black racism in various areas of accreditation.

His work as Chair coincides with the establishment of the Black Physicians’ Association of Alberta in 2021. As the Founder and President, Dr. Osei-Tutu provides mentorship and guidance to prepare the next generation of Black doctors.

“I’m encouraged that things are shifting and starting to move,”Dr. Osei-Tutu said. “As a profession, medicine has lagged somewhat behind other sectors of society, such as business and law, when it comes to coordinated, wide-scale, and systemic efforts to address EDI and anti-racism. But, it’s also the profession that could make the greatest impact if we commit to the pursuit of safe, equitable and inclusive clinical environments for care providers and patients. Fundamentally, it’s the profession that is about caring for people.”

Dr. Osei-Tutu designed the National Ombuds of Canada in 2022, the first and only national reporting mechanism for racialized trainees who experience or witness racism in postgraduate medical learning settings. Dr. Osei-Tutu identified the need to address a critical gap – only one of 17 medical institutions in Canada have a reporting mechanism explicit to racial harm and trauma. Endorsed by multiple medical organizations, the program has secured substantial funding and will launch later this year.

“This is a needed structural intervention in the system that currently doesn’t exist.” Dr. Osei-Tutu said. “Sadly, it is not uncommon for Black, Indigenous, and racialized trainees to experience racism in the learning environment and they typically suffer in silence and do not feel they have a safe space to be heard. By implementing a safe pathway for trainees who have been harmed or discriminated against, and by leveraging the accreditation process to establish a zero tolerance standard for racism, I hope to see this model expanded and positioned to disrupt other forms of discrimination in the learning environment.”

A big trend in medical care right now involves artificial intelligence. Dr. Osei-Tutu sees the potential of A.I. being used to promote better health equity outcomes in patient care, but he cautions that the development of algorithms requires scrutiny.

“Our own biases are embedded into these algorithms,” he said. “Some A.I. applications have been found to perpetuate biases and cause harm to marginalized patients. If certain behaviors occur in a clinical environment, because of one’s partialities, A.I. tools could serve as a check and balance on a practitioner’s unconscious biases. Research is ongoing, but emerging evidence suggests A.I. could be a powerful tool for justice if we build algorithms that can correct against a practitioner’s biases.”

Historic appointment and recognition

Earlier this month, the University of Calgary appointed Dr. Osei-Tutu to the role of inaugural Senior Associate Dean – Health Equity and Systems Transformation at the Cumming School of Medicine, effective February 1, 2023. This follows him receiving the prestigious Donald I. Rice Award in 2022 from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, which recognizes an outstanding

CFPC family physician who has contributed to teaching, vision, and leadership in family medicine. As Senior Associate Dean, Dr. Osei-Tutu will work in Health Equity and Systems Transformation, which encompasses a broad spectrum of issues in and outside the school. He is hopeful that this will enable him to support a shift in the institution’s culture to one of authentic inclusion where all students, trainees, and faculty feel they belong.

“With this senior leadership role, I’ll be at the decision-making table and will be able to influence policy and procedures from which many from marginalized backgrounds have previously been excluded,” he said.

“Externally, I’ll be responsible for operationalizing our school’s social ac-countability so that we are genuinely interfacing with local communities, medical regulatory and third-party organizations in the province, and advocating on behalf of the Cumming School on a national level. My goal is to collaborate broadly with others and support the school in becoming a beacon for medical education in Canada, and make us be the place that people want to come practice and feel they belong.”

The road ahead

“A sick person should never have to travel,” Dr. Osei-Tutu recalls his father saying to him. To take care of the community at large, his father pioneered a travelling urology service, which saw him going to different locations in B.C., from Smithers to Prince Rupert and beyond, to take care of Indigenous patients.

This type of authentic innovation drives Dr. Osei-Tutu’s work, so he can continue to impact patient lives positively. He says that keeping things in focus by continually pushing the boundaries of what is possible keeps him resilient for the road ahead.

Reflecting on his childhood in Terrace, Dr. Osei-Tutu says, “I think I would be able to tell that 10-year-old boy that all of this, and all of the stuff you have gone through, was going to be worth it at the end of the day.”