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#BETTER is an innovative, person-centred, and evidence-informed program that can help people aged 40-65 reduce their risk of cancer and chronic disease. It combines training, practice implementation support, and a decision-support toolkit that can help providers and clients work together to reduce the risk of cancer or chronic disease.
On December 13, 2021, the Alliance hosted a special Lunch 'n' Learn webinar about how the BETTER program can support your team's prevention work. BETTER Institute directors Dr. Aisha Lofters and Carolina Fernandes, and Master Trainer Katherine Latko presented an overview of the BETTER program and the research that supports it. They were joined by BETTER Co-Founder, Dr. Eva Grunfeld, for an extended Q&A session.
You can watch the recorded webinar below, or see the slide deck here (as a PDF). To learn more about BETTER, visit the website or check out this fact sheet. If you wish to connect with the presenters, you can find their email addresses below. They would love to hear from you!
#Webinar Learning Objectives
- Learn about BETTER and how it integrates preventive care for cancer and chronic diseases
- Hear how the program has been adapted for different age groups, populations, and settings
- Reflect on how BETTER could engage and empower your patients to make meaningful changes for their health
#More about BETTER
BETTER provides support for prevention, screening, and modifying lifestyle risk factors such as physical activity, smoking, alcohol and diet. A health professional within a primary health care setting is trained as a Prevention Practitioner, gaining enhanced skills in chronic disease prevention and access to the BETTER Toolkit and resources, a suite of decision-support tools that includes harmonized screening guidelines and a detailed Care Map.
This is a person-centred approach that encourages each client to decide what changes they want to make. Clients and Prevention Practitioners set S.M.A.R.T. goals together, and clients are connected to resources that can help them reach these goals. The program is also adaptable, so each primary care practice or team can customize it to meet the unique needs of the populations and communities they serve. It has been implemented in diverse primary care settings across Canada, including urban, rural and remote, locations, and there is an adapted version of the BETTER Toolkit tailored to Indigenous populations.
BETTER was developed by primary care clinician researchers. It is ideal for interprofessional, team-based primary care settings or collaborative health networks. It has been recognized by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care as an effective way to deliver preventive care, and it is included in the Patient Medical Home provincial toolkits developed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Prevention Practitioner training and the BETTER toolkit are available to teams on a not-for-profit, cost-recovery basis. The mission is to advance the health of Canadians and contribute to a sustainable healthcare system through improved chronic disease prevention and screening.
#Presenter Bios
Dr. Aisha Lofters | Director, The BETTER Institute | Aisha.Lofters@WCHospital.ca
Dr. Aisha Lofters is a family physician and scientist at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, where she is also Chair in Implementation Science at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She currently holds a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and serves as the Provincial Primary Care Lead for Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario)’s Cancer Screening Portfolio, where she provides guidance on Ontario’s cancer screening programs. Her research program focuses on cancer screening and prevention with a health equity lens.
Ms. Carolina Fernandes | Director, The BETTER Institute Lead Coordinator, The BETTER Program | CFernandes@better-program.ca
Carolina Fernandes began her career with the BETTER Program as a regional Study Coordinator for the BETTER Trial in 2011. She has been involved in several research studies as part of BETTER’s program of research, trained Prevention Practitioners from diverse backgrounds and settings, and supported primary care practices’ program implementation efforts. Ms. Fernandes has contributed to several core activities of BETTER including program coordination, development of the Prevention Practitioner training curriculum, refinement of the BETTER Program tools, and development of the IT solutions for the program. She holds a Master of Science degree in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University and a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Alberta. Her previous experience includes primary care research in end-of-life and palliative care.
Ms. Katherine Latko | Master Trainer, the BETTER Institute | KLatko@better-program.ca
Katherine Latko joined the BETTER Program team in 2018 as a Prevention Practitioner Trainer at the BETTER Institute. She has contributed to several core activities of BETTER, including the development of the Train-the-Facilitator training curriculum, creation of supplementary BETTER tools, development of a virtual version of the training program, and training of over 200 Prevention Practitioners. Ms. Latko graduated from The University of Guelph with an Honours Bachelor of Applied Science in Human Nutrition, is a member of The College of Dietitians of Ontario as a Registered Dietitian, and is a Certified Diabetes Educator. Previous experience includes patient-centered counselling of patients on chronic disease prevention and management. She is currently pursuing a Project Management Professional Certification through the Project Management Institute.
Dr. Eva Grunfeld | Co-Founder, The BETTER Program | Director, The BETTER Institute
Dr. Eva Grunfeld has over 30 years' experience as a family physician specializing in cancer care. She has just completed a 12-year term as Director of the Knowledge Translation Research Network in the Health Services Research Program for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the Giblon Professor and Vice Chair (Research) at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. From 2004 to 2008, she founded and directed the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at Cancer Care Nova Scotia and Dalhousie University. She obtained her medical degree from McMaster University and doctoral degree in cancer epidemiology from Oxford University. Her research focuses on evaluation and knowledge translation of cancer health services, covering the entire spectrum of cancer control activities and uses a mixed-methods approach including randomized controlled trials, qualitative research and outcomes research. Dr. Grunfeld is recognized as an international leader in primary care research, including follow-up and cancer survivorship, and has been the lead author of many seminal randomized controlled trials on cancer follow-up care establishing the safety and acceptability of primary care-based follow-up of breast cancer patients. She received the lifetime achievement award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2018.