BETTER Women: Rethinking Prevention in Primary Care
What would it take to truly move healthcare upstream? The BETTER Women podcast series follows a Canadian research project, a collaboration between Women’s College Hospital and the Canadian Cancer Society, that set out to find out. Produced by Matters of Engagement, this five-part series traces the full arc of the study, from the promise of peer health coaching to the complex reality of the results.
You’ll hear from physicians, researchers, implementation scientists, and the volunteers who brought human connection to the heart of the work. The series doesn’t shy away from mixed findings. Instead, it asks what we learn when research surprises us, and what it would take to make prevention a serious, sustained strategy for reducing chronic disease.
The BETTER Women project received financial support from PHAC. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Episode 1
Going “Upstream” to Prevent Chronic Disease
Prevention is one of the most promising and most underused tools in healthcare. This opening episode introduces the BETTER Women project and the case for upstream care: supporting lifestyle behaviour change to reduce the risk of chronic disease. Featuring family physicians, cancer prevention specialists, and researchers, the episode explores why this approach makes so much sense in theory, and why it’s so difficult to pull off in practice.
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Episode 2
The Science behind Peer Health Support
How do you design a study to test whether peer support actually works? This episode goes inside the BETTER Women randomized controlled trial: its structure; its three study sites; and the real complexity of running a prevention program in primary care. A close look at what rigorous research takes, and what it’s trying to change.
Episode 3
Voices from the Heart of the Project: Peer Health Coaches
Meet the volunteer peer health coaches at the centre of the BETTER Women project. Trained in motivational interviewing, and brought together by remarkably varied paths. From cancer survivors to newcomers to international physicians, they share what drew them to the program, how it changed them, and why human connection may be healthcare’s most undervalued resource.
Episode 4
Learning from Unexpected Results: What the Numbers Didn’t Capture
The quantitative results weren’t what the team had hoped for. But, the qualitative picture told a different story. This episode shares the research team’s candid debrief, exploring the gap between what was measured and what participants actually experienced. An honest look at mixed findings, and why they matter just as much as clear successes.
Episode 5
Zooming Out: Research, Implementation, and the Road Ahead
Mixed findings aren’t the end of the story. Dr. Ruth Heisey reflects on what BETTER Women got right and why peer health coaching still holds promise. Implementation scientist Laura Desveaux reframes the question: knowing whether something works is only half the challenge. The other half is making it work in the real world. Hosts Jennifer Johannesen and Emily Nicholas Angl close out the series by reflecting on what it means to tell a research story as it unfolds.