Please join us for our upcoming research rounds with Nisha Malhotra (The Birthplace Lab) and Ruvini Amarasekera (R2, St. Paul’s Hospital)
Date: Wednesday 26 February 2025
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM Pacific Time
Title 1: Healthcare Disparities in Canada: Examining the Role of Socio-Economic Status and Identity Factors (12:00 – 12:55)
Title 2: Embedding Indigenous Ways of Knowing into Primary Care Practice: A Reflection on a Resident-Participant’s Experience of the “Travelling The River Towards a Skookum Surrey” Canoe Journey Project with Ruvini Amarasekera (12:55 – 1:30)
Where: Zoom
Talk Abstract
1. This presentation examines how socio-economic status, geographic location, and identity-related factors—such as race, ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI)—affect the Canadian healthcare experience. Drawing on the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), we will provide an overview of the differences in healthcare access among various subgroups of Canadians. Additionally, we will utilize patient-reported experience measures (PREM) from an online RESPCCT study to investigate disparities in the experience of respectful maternity care. Ultimately, this session highlights the inequalities that exist within different healthcare settings.
2. In this presentation, Ruvini Amarasekera will highlight the key findings from her scholarly work including a reflective essay that uses Bain’s 5Rs Reflective Framework and critical reflexive methods to examine the main takeaways from her experience as a participant of a locally-based canoe journey project. There is particular focus on honouring Indigenous ways of knowing and applying my findings to my future primary care practice. This scholarly work contributes to the cultural shift in medicine to practice in a more culturally sensitive way
Speaker Bios
Dr. Nisha Malhotra heads the data analysis team at the Birthplace Lab. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with a focus on global health, gender, and development. Her research explores the role of socio-economic factors, individual identities, and policies on decisions and behaviour from maternal dietary habits, infant feeding practices in India to smoking behaviors among Canadian youth. You can find more on her research here.
Dr. Ruvini Amarasekera is a graduating resident physician at the UBC St. Paul’s Family Medicine program. She is the first author of the project titled Embedding Indigenous Ways of Knowing into Primary Care Practice: A Reflection on a Resident-Participant’s Experience of the “Travelling The River Towards a Skookum Surrey” Canoe Journey Project. This scholarly work involves an experiential learning experience and subsequent reflective essay. The project’s objective is to honour Indigenous ways of knowing and reflect on applications of my findings to my future primary care practice.