Advancing Health Trainee Dr. Dahn Jeong is working with immigrant and racialized communities to co-lead health research that reflects their priorities.
Over the last three decades, the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes has built a reputation for innovative research and supporting early-career researchers. Our trainees have continued their careers and made significant contributions to healthcare research.
An example of this trajectory is Dr. Dahn Jeong, an infectious diseases epidemiologist who, under the supervision of Advancing Health scientist Dr. Naveed Janjua, is working on a project aimed at addressing gaps in health equity research for immigrant and racialized communities in British Columbia. We spoke with Dr. Jeong to learn more about her project, goals, and experiences as a postdoctoral trainee.
Drawing from Personal Experience
By 2041, it is projected that immigrants will make up over 31% of Canada’s population.
In light of the consistently documented disparities in health outcomes for immigrant and racialized communities in Canada, our health systems must grow towards meeting the challenges that come with a growingly diverse population with unique health needs and cultural nuances. And for Dr. Jeong, her professional interest is rooted in the personal.
“I came into this work from my personal experience as a Korean immigrant. Members of my family have been directly affected by Hepatitis B, and growing up in Canada, I noticed gaps in access to health information, screening, and health services for immigrants facing unique health challenges,” said Dr. Jeong. “This sparked my interest in public health and community-involved health research.”
During her doctoral studies, she worked on a project analyzing health administrative data on viral hepatitis and its long-term outcomes among different ethnic groups in British Columbia. The project addressed a seldom-studied area — how East and South Asians experience Hepatitis C and related complications differently than the general population, with higher risks of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular issues.
The findings raised critical questions and revealed disparities that could not be fully understood through data alone. It called for deeper engagement with community perspectives and context. “The data could tell us what was happening, but not why, or how communities were actually experiencing it. We could see the disparities, but not the barriers behind them. That gap felt incomplete to me, and it’s what drew me toward working directly with communities.”
Beginning in 2023, Dr. Jeong contributed to the collaborative development of a Partnership Engagement Framework, working closely with S.U.C.C.E.S.S., one of the largest non-profit organizations serving immigrants and newcomers across BC. Drawing on a longstanding relationship between S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and the research team at BCCDC, the two organizations co-developed the framework and conducted community engagement events with Chinese-speaking immigrant communities on liver health and Hepatitis B. The goal was to create a space for sharing research findings and understanding community health priorities. This effort contributed to the creation of the BRIDGE (Building Relationships to Integrate Community-Driven Guidance for Health Equity) Centre, which aims to build sustainable infrastructure to facilitate multi-directional exchange between community organizations, researchers, healthcare providers, and public health leaders, ensuring communities have meaningful access to and co-leadership over health research that affects them.
Building the Foundation
“BRIDGE is an initiative that is establishing sustainable infrastructure to connect community organizations, researchers, healthcare providers, and public health leaders,” explained Dr. Jeong.
“The key is to position community organizations as co-leaders, not just consultants. We’re focusing on building relationships and developing a co-governance model to increase capacity and bridge gaps between researchers, communities, healthcare providers, and public health leaders, with all partners mutually informing each other’s work.”
The initiative’s long-term aim is to foster trusted partnerships that make research, services, and responses more relevant to community needs.
Success So Far
“In our consultations with S.U.C.C.E.S.S., DIVERSEcity, MOSAIC, and SWAN Vancouver, we have learned that this initiative is valued and seen as a way to improve the relevance of research findings for their communities,” said Dr. Jeong. “A sustainable partnership like BRIDGE is the missing link for developing programs and policies that address the diverse needs of the communities we aim to support.”
Another key insight from these discussions was understanding the accessibility issues related to reliable information – people are often unaware of what resources are available to them and where they can access them.
“To address this issue, we’re planning a service mapping project across community organizations to catalogue available resources and centralize them into a shared system, making access to trustworthy information easier,” added Dr. Jeong.
But access to information is only part of the picture. Equally important is ensuring communities have the skills and confidence to lead their own engagement. For example, in response to an interest identified by S.U.C.C.E.S.S., BRIDGE co-organised a facilitation skills training workshop for staff across partner organizations, equipping community staff to lead their own focus groups and community circles, rather than having external researchers facilitate.
The team also intends to leverage support from the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) to translate, update, and strengthen these resources for community use.
Looking Ahead
For Dr. Jeong, a major highlight of her work is building relationships with the communities she aims to support and understanding how her research can make a positive impact. “For example, earlier this year, as part of BRIDGE’s foundational work, we co-organized ‘BRIDGING HEALTH: Collaborative Strategies for Hepatitis B,’ a national workshop held alongside the Canadian Liver Meeting in Toronto, bringing together researchers, community organizations, and clinicians from across Canada to identify shared priorities and build sustainable partnerships on immigrant health and Hepatitis B. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with people who are working directly with diverse immigrant and newcomer populations across the country, and building those relationships has been one of the most rewarding parts of this work,” she added.
