As the voice of urology in Canada since 1945, the Canadian Urological Association (CUA) exists to promote the highest standard of urological care for Canadians and to advance the science of urology. Akin to most surgical fields, the demographics of the members of our national organization have changed significantly since 1945. With a mandate to represent all members, the CUA is dedicated to ensuring a culture of respect and fairness. In order to do so, the CUA recognizes the importance of promoting equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) at all levels within our organization.

Over the past year, the CUA EDI Committee was created to advise the CUA Board of Directors (BOD) on relevant issues as they relate to our corporate office and the membership. The committee is chaired by the EDI Officer, a newly created position within the CUA. The advisory committee membership represents a broad constituency across the CUA, including the CUA President, Secretary, Chief Executive Officer, Vice President of Education, Vice President of Communications, CUA Scholarship Foundation (CUASF), Scientific Council Chair, Editor of the Canadian Urological Association Journal, a representative from the CUA Women in Urology Group and 3 members at large. The committee meets twice per year to discuss innovative initiatives for enhancing EDI and to address areas for improvement within our organization.

It has been an eventful year watching this endeavor move forward. One of the first steps has been promoting awareness and education surrounding the principles of EDI. The CUA BOD and committee chairs attended a workshop on “Uncovering Unconscious Bias and Leading Inclusivity.” This workshop aimed to help our key players identify areas of implicit bias and was eye-opening. The majority of attendees felt the workshop was useful and that further education around the topic of EDI was needed. To continue this educational mission, the 2022 CUA annual meeting will include a state-of-the-art lecture, “Meritocracy in Medicine,” by Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, Assistant Dean of Serving and Engaging Society at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine.

Admittedly, we are identifying areas of opportunity where we can improve our commitment to EDI within the organization. For example, revisions of our video “What Is Urology?” for medical students have been made to more accurately reflect a diverse and balanced field of urology within Canada. We are striving to ensure future trainees recognize that urology is a field welcoming of all applicants. We recognize that building a diverse physician workforce will create more culturally competent physicians with improved health outcomes for patients.

Further to this, the Canadian Women in Urology Group has become an affiliate of the CUA under the leadership of transplant urological surgeon, Dr. Monica Farcas. The CUA looks forward to collaborating with this group to help minimize the well-documented gender disparities impacting urologists. Recently, we have also started to build collaborations with Canadian leaders of EDI initiatives, including Dr. Mamta Gautam and Dr. Laurie Hiemstra.

In the future, the CUA hopes to better understand our membership demographics. Therefore, we have changed the membership profile to include the option of inputting gender and race identity. This will contribute to our ability to track progress for improving diversity within our field.

Additional future initiatives will include increasing education for the CUA BOD, committee chairs, CUASF, Canadian Urological Association Journal and the general membership. We hope to incorporate EDI principles at the levels of the CUASF grant applications, future CUA guidelines and the Canadian Urological Association Journal editorial board.

We are early on in this giant initiative to change perceptions on what should be valued within an organization, and across our field of urology. The end goal is not the optics of diversity through processes such as quotas, but to instead work toward a culture change that values the richness of individuals and their unique experiences and views. Respecting the power in our differences will result in success when promoting the highest standard of urological care for Canadians and, most certainly, advancing the science of urology.