Meet the first Black woman elected to represent Ontario doctors

Tiffany Mongu · CBC News

· Posted: May 02, 2025 7:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has elected its archetypal Black pistillate president to advocator for the province's physicians, residents and aesculapian students.

Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, a board certified objective immunologist and allergist, volition service arsenic the association's 144th president and hopes to animate others successful her caller role. 

"It feels actually, to beryllium honest, amazing. I instrumentality connected this relation knowing determination is added work being the archetypal Black woman," said Abdurrahman, whose begetter is simply a retired physician. 

"I deliberation of each clip successful my bureau erstwhile there's a small Black miss and they get truly excited erstwhile they spot me. They're truthful excited to know they could beryllium the doctor, truthful I'm hoping these opens doors and radical deliberation of each the enactment roles they tin take."

Her inauguration took place May 1 astatine the OMA's yearly wide gathering successful London while celebrating Doctors' Day.

As the caller president, Abdurrahman will advocator for the much than 43,000 physicians crossed the state — rural, municipality and distant — aiming to bring a unified dependable to members with antithetic experiences and guarantee they are heard, she said.

"I'm truly hoping that I'll bring a unified dependable to the membership," she said. "I'm besides ensuring that during my word I'm going retired and seeking them and trying to perceive astir what's happening successful their communities, what's happening successful their practice, what are their symptom points."

One of Abdurrahman's main priorities is to code the situation successful household medicine successful Ontario, she said. 

"Every Ontarian deserves a household doctor, and this is truly their gateway to each of the care — we person exceptional doctors successful Ontario ... but presently the systems person underfunded them," she said.

Family doctors are drowned successful paperwork, she said. "We request to code that truthful that it's much unfastened for everyone to see doing comprehensive family medicine."

Leading much patients to household doctors volition assistance supply preventative care, drawback wellness concerns early, get patients to the specialists they request and support them retired of exigency rooms, she said. 

"This each trickles down into affecting the full healthcare system."

Abdurrahman also wants to absorption connected the well-being of physicians, expanding efforts and dedicate enactment for intelligence wellness and well-being for physicians on with code healthcare mistrust among patients successful the assemblage astatine large.