Addressing forced resilience: Indigenous experiences with genomic medicine in B.C. – UBC Faculty of Medicine
May 12, 2026
A newly published study examines how systemic barriers in health care shape Indigenous families’ views about genomic medicine in British Columbia.
The findings, recently published in Genetics in Medicine, show that physical and relational barriers to access, experiences of racism and persistent demands for self-advocacy impose resilience as a condition of care for Indigenous families. The study describes this dynamic as forced resilience, highlighting how it undermines equitable access to genomic medicine.
The study was co-led by an Indigenous Advisory Council and researchers from the Regulatory Science Lab at the UBC Faculty of Medicine and BC Cancer Research Institute, including principal investigator Dr. Dean Regier and health economist Morgan Ehman, and conducted in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority. It is part of the Silent Genomes Project, which is seeking to address the ‘genomic divide’ caused by the lack of background genetic variation data for Indigenous populations in Canada.
