Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass helps Black medical learners and physicians find mentors
Three out of four Black medical residents do not have Black mentors. Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass with the Black Physicians of Canada has launched Canada’s first racially concordant mentorship program to address the gap.
“Being able to relate to a mentor within your own race and gender and to be able to share experiences leads to professional and career empowerment.”
— Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass
Lack of access to Black mentorship
Black learners are under-represented in medicine, often due to systemic discrimination in admission policies and practices. While there has been an increase in the number of Black medical learners over the past 10 years, three out of four do not have access to the formal mentorship that benefits many non-racialized students.
That’s why NYGH obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass, as the first president of Black Physicians of Canada, has launched the country’s first racially concordant mentorship program.
Matching mentors and mentees
Dr. Tunde-Byass says the lack of racially concordant mentorship in medicine affects attrition rates, performance, career progression and the ability to navigate the healthcare system. To fill the mentorship gap, the national program pairs Black physicians with Black residents, fellows and early career physicians.
Every quarter, the program offers workshops on such topics as professionalism, microaggression and how to survive residency. In its first year of operation, the program matched approximately 60 mentors and mentees. Black Physicians Canada has presented research on the mentorship program at national conferences and has published it in medical journals.
Mentoring Black women and students
Dr. Tunde-Byass says Black women in medicine face more barriers due to both their gender and race. These barriers include lack of access to mentorship, fewer promotions and work-life balance challenges. When she mentors women, Dr. Tunde-Byass advises them to think about relationships and family planning, so they can be fulfilled both professionally and personally.
As part of her mentorship advocacy, Dr. Tunde-Byass also meets with high school students. She says it’s important to tell Black students at an early age that nothing is impossible—they can become physicians, even if they have never seen one who looks like them. Recently, while at Queen’s University for a speaking engagement, Dr. Tunde-Byass met a Black medical student who said that the high school presentations inspired her to study medicine.
Paying it forward
Dr. Tunde-Byass is also involved with the Diversity Mentorship Program at University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, where she is an associate professor in obstetrics and gynaecology. At NYGH she mentors people of all races, including learners and physicians interested in or working in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Mentees often go on to become mentors themselves, which Dr. Tunde-Byass says is the whole idea behind building a mentorship program pipeline. While she did not have a formal Black mentor when she was studying medicine, Dr. Tunde-Byass did have mentors and continues to benefit from them today. She says that sharing struggles and vulnerabilities, successes and failures leads to a more humanistic approach to medicine.
This story was featured in the 2023 – 2024 Year in Review.