Health Equity Advisory Group – Call for Interest 2022

November 14, 2022

The Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario is looking for community members to join our Health Equity Advisory Group (HEAG)!

To express interest, you can complete this survey OR send us a letter, video or audio file expressing interest by December 2, 2022.

If you send a letter, video or audio file, please include a bit about your background and what interests you in being part of the Health Equity Working Group. Submissions will be accepted in the Equity Mailbox.

Deadline: December 2, 2022

Watch a welcome from Danna Hull, Co-Chair of the Health Equity Advisory Group

Listen to a welcome from Alana Esty, Co-Chair of the Health Equity Advisory Group

Or Read the welcome from Mireille, Manager at BORN Ontario:

Hi, I’m Mireille Cloutier, a Manager at BORN Ontario and my pronouns are she/her/hers/elle.

I am thrilled to announce that we are extending our membership call for another year of BORN’s External Health Equity Advisory Group. The Health Equity Advisory Group is a critical advisory group that provides guidance and recommendations to BORN with a lens on equity.

BORN is a prescribed person under the Personal Health Information and Protection Act (PHIPA). If you’d like to learn more about who we are, and how we facilitate and improve care for pregnant people, newborns, and children in Ontario, please see our website.

We are extending this membership call to engage with members of the community with lived experience and expertise on equity seeking groups to advise on the collection and use of social determinants of health data to improve and facilitate care, and more generally, how we can align our work with equity guiding principles.

You can submit your application by either completing a short survey, or sending us a letter, video file or audio file. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and what interests you in being a part of the health equity group at BORN. Submissions will be accepted until Friday December 2, 2022.

If you have any questions about the Health Equity Advisory Group or this application process, please email us at equity@bornontario.ca

Thank you!

Past and Future Work

The 2021/2022 HEAG was comprised of 23 participants consisting of individuals with expertise in midwifery, prenatal screening, Indigenous health and research. In our inaugural year the HEAG reviewed social determinants of health data elements collected at BORN, provided feedback on the collection of these data elements, and discussed the challenges to this data collection from various viewpoints.

The HEAG reviewed an environment scan of social determinants of health data elements collected by other Canadian organizations and the advantages and limitations to this data and provided feedback to BORN’s Gender Inclusive Style Guide.

In 2023, the HEAG will review and provide feedback on policies and procedures that BORN is developing to ensure the safe use of social determinants of health data, consult on internal health equity projects and inform strategic direction on future health equity activities at BORN in the coming years.

Who are we looking for?

We are seeking expertise from members of equity-seeking groups with lived experience. Equity-seeking groups are communities that face significant collective challenges participating in society. This marginalization can be created by attitudinal, historic, social, institutional, and environmental barriers based on age, ethnicity, disability, economic status, gender, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender status, etc.

The Health Equity Advisory Group (HEAG) will be a critical table that will provide guidance and recommendations to BORN with a lens on equity.

What are the objectives of the group?

The HEAG has the following two objectives:

Review the collection of race-based data and other social determinants of health data in the BORN Information System (BIS) and provide guidance on appropriate collection, use, storage and governance of race-based data and other social determinants of health data to facilitate and improve care.
Provide recommendations to BORN management for any changes to its operations that are appropriate to achieve alignment by BORN with all applicable organizational health equity policies that are in place or will be introduced in the future.

How long is the term and when will we meet?

HEAG members will meet a minimum of three times a year via teleconference, with potential for additional meetings called ad-hoc by the chair. Membership appointments are staggered within a timeframe of 1-3 years. When joining, members select their preference for term length, dependent on needs. Specific requirements can be revisited by the co-chairs as needed at the request of a member. Terms can be held for a maximum of 3 years.

Terms of Reference

Please see the complete Terms of Reference

Questions? Contact us

If you have questions about HEAG or this application process, please email the BORN Equity Team at equity@bornontario.ca.

Learn more about BORN's Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion work