The health needs of Trillium Health Partners’ community — in one of Canada’s fastest-growing and most diverse regions — are increasingly complex.
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needs → grow → regions
Yet inequities in access to care and health outcomes persist across the health system, particularly for historically marginalized populations.
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inequities → persist → populations
At the Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners’ research hub helmed by chief scientist Dr. Laura Rosella, scientists are using data to identify where disparities exist.
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disparities → helm → data
Dr. Rosella’s research has found substantial inequities across the health system, including in cancer screening and premature mortality, with people living in underserved neighbourhoods consistently experiencing poorer health.
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people → find → health
As the first hospital to make health inequity a more visible part of how it measures and improves care, Trillium Health Partners is setting a precedent for other health systems and taking a more proactive approach to reducing disparities.
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Partners → make → disparities
The Institute for Better Health is also collecting data to understand not only where health gaps exist, but what makes communities healthier, safer and stronger — from belonging and trust to social connection and the environments in which people live.
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people → collect → which
The goal is to help shape investments and interventions that allow people to thrive in the communities they live in.
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they → shape → communities
“Once inequities are visible, they become something the health system can be accountable for changing.
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system → become → ?
The goal is to use that evidence to redesign care so that access to something as important as cancer screening is not shaped by where someone lives, their income, language or other barriers,” said Dr. Rosella.
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Rosella → use → lives
A two-pronged approach to tackling health inequities
One of the largest community-based hospital systems in Canada, comprising Credit Valley Hospital, the Mississauga Hospital and the Queensway Health Centre, Trillium Health Partners — in partnership with the Mississauga Halton Central West Regional Cancer Program — is strengthening the collection and use of socioeconomic data to identify where disparities exist and use these insights to shape more targeted interventions.
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disparities → tackle → interventions
“The data says where the disparities are,” said Dr. Scott Berry, a medical oncologist specializing in cancer chemotherapy and chief and medical director of the cancer program at Trillium Health Partners.
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Berry → say → Partners
He also serves as regional vice-president of the Mississauga Halton Central West Regional Cancer Program with Ontario Health – Cancer Care Ontario.
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He → serve → Ontario
“And that’s where we need to do the more qualitative and interactive work to understand why — so, what’s the human story behind those numbers?”
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story → ’ → numbers
That means working at a grassroots level with community ambassadors to understand barriers in each community.
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That → mean → community
“But there’s also some deeper reasons, and those are rooted in trust — past experience with the health system, cultural safety or not really being seen,” said Dr. Berry.
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Berry → ’ → system
That’s where community ambassadors — who understand the cultural context of the neighbourhood — can help.
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who → ’ → neighbourhood
For example, community members told them that cancer screening materials didn’t reflect them or their lived experience.
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materials → tell → them
“The message was clear: if they don’t see themselves in the information, they’re less likely to trust it, use it and act on it,” said Dr. Berry.
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Berry → see → it
Shaping care in real-time through research
June Buckle is one of those community ambassadors.
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Buckle → shape → ambassadors
As a 13-year breast cancer survivor, she works closely with women and families in Peel Region as the director of The Olive Branch of Hope — the only Black women-led organization in Canada founded by breast cancer survivors.
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she → work → survivors
“There are barriers that disproportionately affect Black women, and those contribute to later diagnoses and poor outcomes,” she said.
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she → be → diagnoses
This is particularly concerning, since Black women are often diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called triple-negative breast cancer.
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women → diagnose → cancer
Black women are often juggling work, caregiving responsibilities and financial pressures, so their own health becomes a lower priority, said Buckle.
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Buckle → juggle → work
“In our community, I’ve also encountered fear and mistrust of the system.
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I → encounter → system
We historically have experienced ongoing inequities.
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We → experience → inequities
”
There’s also a lack of culturally relevant health information and limited representation in research and clinical trials “that leave us feeling disconnected from all the services that are available to us,” she said.
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she → ’ → us
Trillium Health Partners has translated cancer screening materials into multiple languages that reflect theregion’smost commonly spoken languages.
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that → translate → languages
It has also expanded access by working with Ontario Health and the Ontario Breast Cancer Screening Program (OBSP) to open new locations and extend hours of operation.
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It → expand → operation
So far, breast cancer screening rates have increased more than 12 percentage points since 2021 — an increase that coincides with targeted outreach and the expanded capacity through new OBSP sites.
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that → increase → sites
Addressing inequities upstream is also good for the economy: Prevention, earlier detection and timely treatment can reduce serious illness or complications and keep people out of hospital, where care is more resource-intensive and expensive.
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care → address → hospital
Better data also supports smarter allocation of health care resources to where need is greatest — improving outcomes while supporting system sustainability.
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need → support → sustainability
This is also made possible through philanthropic support.
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This → make → support
For example, Hap and Barbara Stephen helped to establish The Stephen Family Research Chair in Community Health, which is held by Dr. Rosella.
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which → help → Rosella
Hap and Barbara were the original donors to the community health research chair more than 10 years ago and renewed that support again in 2024.
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Hap → renew → 2024
“We saw this as an opportunity to deal with health inequities,” said Hap.
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Hap → see → inequities
“I believe strongly in using facts and data to assist people in making decisions and in tracking the results of those decisions to see whether they’re working or not.”
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they → believe → decisions
And so far, the results speak for themselves.
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results → speak → themselves
The Aporia
