Let’s Talk Data: Where We’re Headed 

It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you about understanding the demographics of our profession and collecting this data from you. 

In previous blogs, I’ve written about how we decided to pause and shift our focus from collection to building relationships, improving our data governance, and working to gain your trust as we seek to collect this information. 

I also spoke about how understanding who makes up the physiotherapy profession is an important part of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion goals. 

With annual renewal now underway, I wanted to revisit this discussion and remind you of the ‘why’ behind our ask.  

It’s my hope that while you’re in our system completing annual renewal, you’ll consider navigating to the profile section of the PT Portal where you can share additional demographic data with us confidentially and voluntarily.  

Why Demographic Data is Important 

Previously I talked about why demographic data about the profession is important to collect and understand. 

One of the first steps we can take in seeking to address equity, diversity, and inclusion issues is to understand who makes up our profession. 

With this baseline information we can begin to ask questions like: 

• Do the decision-makers and the physiotherapists doing work on behalf of the College reflect the diversity of our profession? 

• Are we communicating and sharing information in a way that enhances inclusivity and meets the needs of our profession? 

• Is there a potential for bias or inequity in our processes and outcomes? 

Our system partners depend on this data as well. 

At our December Board meeting, we heard from a McMaster University faculty member who led a research project involving physiotherapy students. The students designed and piloted community outreach programs to help raise awareness of physiotherapy and encourage interest in the profession, specifically in communities that are currently underrepresented. The initial stages of this work involved looking at the available demographic data to identify underrepresented groups. However, because the information we have is limited, they were limited in opportunities to collect robust data sets to support their work.  

The Office of the Fairness Commissioner is also increasingly asking regulators to analyze our registration practices through the lens of inclusion and anti-racism. We’re limited in answering these questions without information about the profession. 

As the regulator we are in a unique position to collect data and support these broader discussions as we are the only body in the province that has access to the entire profession. 

The Path Ahead 

So what’s next for us? 

Over the next year we’re going back to basics. We have policies and infrastructure we need to build, but we aren’t going to do this without collaboration.  

We will be taking time to hear from those who are most impacted by the collection of demographic information to get their perspective and input before making any changes. We are seeking to live up to the motto of “nothing about us without us”. 

We will continue to work towards clearly articulating why we might collect more demographic information in the future, how we’ll safeguard the data, and how we could use it to support our work and that of our partners. 

As we work on these efforts, we also hope to launch a voluntary census in the future. This will be an opportunity to collect information from you in a completely anonymous manner and in a way that is not connected to your registration data. This is something some of our regulatory peers have already done and we’re hoping to build on their success and have strong participation from the profession. 

In the meantime, you still have an opportunity to share this information with us on a voluntary basis through the PT Portal and I hope you’ll take the time to do so. You can add or update information on your racial identity and Indigenous identity anytime in the profile section of the PT Portal. For the nearly 30% of the profession who has already shared this information – thank you! 

Your participation will not only help us advance our equity work, but the work of our system partners as well.