Transforming Women's Health: Conversations for Change

Colleen believes online connectivity is arguably the most exciting innovation of the patient-led health era. As a tenacious connector of patients, Colleen demonstrates how an active community, strategically managed, can re-imagine health care and improve health outcomes.

Mental illness at this life stage poses unique risks to mothers and their children at a critical juncture in both of their lives. Her research is helping raise awareness about gaps in access to specialized perinatal mental healthcare, as well as identifying vulnerable populations where these gaps are most prominent. She also designs and evaluates novel health system interventions to improve access to and uptake of care for affected women. Her background includes an Honours BSc in Psychology from McGill University (1999), followed by an MD (2003), residency in psychiatry (2003-2009) and MSc in Clinical Epidemiology (2011) from the University of Toronto. She leads a clinical research program at Women’s College Hospital as a Senior Scientist and the Shirley A. Brown Memorial Chair in Women’s Mental Health Research in the Women’s College Research Institute, and is a Senior Adjunct Scientist at ICES in Toronto, Ontario where population-level health administrative data for her epidemiological studies are securely held.

Her Heart Innovation Research Program includes, i) patient-centered, clinical research focusing on women’s and men’s cardio/vascular health, ii) the education of patients, healthcare providers, trainees, and the public iii) and extending reach to create awareness, and mobilize knowledge, to improve health equity in the prevention, treatment and understanding of the human health care experience. Her evolving research program, contains three related areas of focus: 1) to examine and describe cardiovascular disease (CVD) related pain and associated symptoms: [early cardiac prodromal symptoms and acute/chronic symptom presentations], 2) with the use of digital health technology design, develop and evaluate interventions to screen for and/or manage pain and other symptoms, and 3) create meaningful knowledge mobilization through an arts-based platform for dissemination.

Dr Norris is eager to bring this experience to her new role as Black Health Theme Lead for the TFOM. Her passion for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity is also reflected in several initiatives. They include mentoring committee membership of the Black Physicians Association of Canada and collaboration with the Network for the Advancement of Black Learners and successful changes to the CaRMS application for core internal medicine which lead to increased inclusivity. She also brings her commitment to service to the Black community at TAIBU and at the Centre Francophone du Grand Toronto.

Jade’s transition to adulthood over the last few years has coincided with her personal gender transition—an experience woven with interactions that have sometimes been collaborative, sometimes uncooperative, and sometimes even exclusionary with medical and mental health support. As the older sibling to her 21-year-old twin autistic brothers, she often wishes the world could follow their lead and simply accept her for who she is, understanding that her gender and sexuality are no one’s business but her own (and perhaps her doctor’s).