Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu appointed senior associate dean, Health Equity and Systems Transformation

The Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu, MD, MSc, as the inaugural senior associate dean, Health Equity and Systems Transformation. The appointment took effect on Feb. 1, 2023.

Dr. Osei-Tutu is a hospitalist and associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the CSM. He is also director of resident support for Postgraduate Medical Education and associate director of Student Advocacy and Wellness for Undergraduate Medical Education.

Dr. Osei-Tutu is well established as a provincial and national leader in change transformation. The founder and president of the Black Physicians’ Association of Alberta, he elevates the voices of Black physicians, trainees and learners and is a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta’s Anti-racism Anti-discrimination Action Committee. He informs the development of policies, educational programs and curricula that are inclusive and has established partnerships with regulatory and licensing bodies to advance health equity.

In this new leadership position, Dr. Osei-Tutu will carry the CSM forward as a partner for health equity in the community. He will develop policies and actions that support equity culture and increased diversity of the CSM, including development of a social accountability plan with the Indigenous, Local and Global Health Office leadership team. He will champion anti-racism culture while implementing concrete steps to address change within the CSM and beyond.

Dr. Osei-Tutu is at the forefront of emerging concepts in anti-racist, anti-oppressive and culturally safe medical education, and he approaches his work through the lens of intersectionality and compassion. He is a member of the CanMEDS 2025 Steering Committee and was selected to co-chair the CanMEDS 2025 anti-racism expert working group on which he plays a lead role in scholarship and co-creation of new physician competencies related to equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, anti-oppression and social justice. He has many recent published works and is a co-supervisor in a national research project exploring the ‘sense of belonging’ of equity deserving students in Canadian medical schools.

A trailblazer in systems-level solutions to structural barriers, he conceived, designed and secured funding for the first national support and reporting mechanism for racialized and other equity-deserving trainees who experience or witness racism or other forms of oppression in the postgraduate medical education environment. He also spearheaded the creation of and serves as a mentor in the Black Physicians’ Association of Alberta provincial mentorship program.

Dr. Osei-Tutu serves as the EDI and Anti-racism strategic advisor for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and is chair of the Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium Accreditation Working Group to address anti-Black racism in postgraduate medical education. He and his team have advanced the greatest number of new accreditation standards in the history of the accreditation process, set to take effect next year.

Dr. Osei-Tutu earned a degree in Kinesiology from McMaster University, followed by a Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine at Dalhousie University. He completed a Family Medicine residency at the University of Toronto. He is the recipient of many awards including the 2022 Donald I. Rice Award from the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine, the 2022 John Ware Fellowship from the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, the 2022 Resident Doctors of Canada Puddester Award for Resident Wellness, the 2022 Calgary Black Achievement Award in Medicine and Health and the 2021 Foothills Medical Centre Medical Staff Association Diversity and Inclusion Award.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Osei-Tutu on his new leadership appointment within the CSM.

Sincerely,

Todd Anderson, MD
Dean, Cumming School of Medicine   
University of Calgary