Meet the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition
The Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition is a key initiative of the National Women’s Health Research Initiative. Composed of 10 hubs across Canada and linked through a coordinating centre, members of the Coalition are working together to maximize the visibility and impact of women’sFootnote 1 health research and practice in Canada.
The hubs and the coordinating centre are led by diverse teams consisting of Canadian non-governmental organizations (including community organizations and regional health authorities), health care professionals, early career researchers and trainees, Indigenous Peoples, and people with lived and living experience navigating women's health
Read the news release and backgrounder.
Read on to learn more about the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition and how it is improving the health of women and gender-diverse people.
Map of the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition
The Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition Hubs
The Healthy Pregnancy Hub
Objective: To create a harmonized Hub for knowledge translation on medication safety during pregnancy to reduce inequalities of reproductive care outcomes.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Anick Berard, Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“The Healthy Pregnancy hub aims to provide valid, reliable, culturally sensitive and up-to-date bilingual information on the safety of medication use in pregnancy, as well as to raise awareness about the importance of considering the safety of medication use in pregnancy overall.” – Dr. Anick Berard
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database and Healthy Pregnancy Hub.
The Alberta Sex, Gender and Women’s Health Research Hub
Objective: Uniting clinical, research, community and health system (Alberta Health Services) partners, to support and improve female and women's health care in our province.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Erin Brennand, University of Calgary
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“Generate knowledge about female and women’s health that will enhance the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based female & women’s health practices, programs, and policies in Alberta.” – Dr. Erin Brennand
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
The Sexual Health and Genito-Pelvic Pain Knowledge Empowerment Hub (SHAPE)
Objective: The SHAPE Hub is a collaborative initiative focused on sexual difficulties and genito-pelvic pain (SD/GPP) in women and gender diverse individuals. SD/GPP are common, distressing, often dismissed or misunderstood, leaving women and gender diverse people facing barriers to care. The hub unites researchers, clinicians, patients, Indigenous partners, NGOs, and knowledge users to mobilize knowledge about SD/GPP, positioning patient perspectives at the core of the initiative.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lori Anne Brotto, University of British Columbia
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“The SHAPE Hub is dedicated to transforming the landscape of sexual health and genito-pelvic pain care, ensuring that women and gender-diverse people have access to safe, timely, appropriate, accessible, culturally and trauma informed care.” – Dr. Lori Anne Brotto
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
Inuit Perinatal Health Hub
Objective: In the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut, the Perinatal Health Hub’s goal is to tailor evidence-based perinatal health research to be socially and culturally relevant and accessible, in both content and delivery, to Inuit women to best serve their need for perinatal health information. While local Inuit cultural and health knowledge and lived experience exists within the communities, colonialism has served to undermine this expertise. The hub is aiming to bring this expertise together with evidence-based health research in the co-development of perinatal health resources designed with and for Inuit women.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia (Patti) Johnston, University of Calgary
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“We hope to have a positive impact on Inuit women’s perinatal health and wellness through increasing access to linguistically and culturally relevant perinatal health information to improve health outcomes and boost Inuit women’s confidence in themselves, each other, and in their communities." – Dr. Patricia Johnston
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
Alliance Against Violence and Adversity (AVA) Women’s and Girls’ Health Hub
Objective: AVA Women’s Heath Hub activities build on AVA’s rigorous, innovative Health Research Training Platform, and leverage the impacts of our established national network of 200+ members from every province and the North to address the problem of violence and adversity affecting women, girls, and gender-diverse people, considering equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility and Indigenous perspectives.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nicole Letourneau, University of Calgary
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“To advance more evidence-based, equitable, gender-sensitive, culturally safe holistic health care and access to care for women, girls and gender-diverse people at-risk/ affected by violence and early adversity across Canada.” – Dr. Nicole Letourneau
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database and Alliance against Violence & Adversity.
IMPACT: Improving Pregnancy and Reproductive Health of People Experience Incarceration Hub
Objective: To eliminate reproductive health disparities faced by individuals experiencing incarceration in Canada. The hub is working towards this goal by prioritizing and mobilizing evidence on scalable policies/programs shown to improve reproductive health and health services in this population.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jessica Liauw, University of British Columbia
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“Our Hub will identify and mobilize effective solutions to address the reproductive health disparities faced by people experiencing incarceration.” – Dr. Jessica Liauw
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
The Women-Centred HIV Care Hub
Objective: The Women-Centred HIV Care (WCHC) Hub is a national feminist virtual network of researchers, clinicians, community-based organizations, community members and learners working to challenge patriarchy and colonialism to optimize the health of women and gender diverse people with HIV and other STBBIs in Canada through increasing the uptake of the WCHC Model and other relevant models and topics and train the next generation of researchers, clinicians and community leaders in the field.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mona Loutfy, Women’s College Research Institute
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“Our mission is to empower individuals and improve health care and outcomes for women and gender diverse people with HIV & STBBIs by uniting stakeholders, challenging patriarchy and colonialism, driving systemic change, and fostering knowledge mobilization and mentorship.” – Dr. Mona Loutfy
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
Co-creating Knowledge Mobilization Activities to Address Pregnancy-Related Near-Miss Events and Deaths Hub
Objective: The hub will bring together several key and often underrepresented groups across Canada, including racialized, gender-diverse and Indigenous health service users, clinicians, policy makers, researchers, and persons with lived experience of pregnancy to meaningfully engage and co-create knowledge mobilization activities to reduce severe maternal morbidity and mortality.
Principal Investigator: Isabelle Malhamé, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
What impact is your Hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“To co-create person- and community-centred knowledge mobilization activities to reduce serious pregnancy complications and improve the health and wellness of women and gender diverse people in Canada.” – Dr. Isabelle Malhamé
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance (CWHHA): Women’s Cardiovascular Health Hub
Objective: The Women’s Cardiovascular Health Hub is a pan-Canadian network of nearly 200 cardiovascular health experts and advocates focused on improving women’s cardiovascular health across the lifespan. The hub leverages our established foundation and is developing a research arm dedicated to maximizing research impact and building a diverse, collaborative, and sustainable network of researchers, clinicians, trainees, patient advocates, and community partners, working together to improve cardiovascular health for women in Canada.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kerri-Anne Mullen, Ottawa Heart Institute Research Corporation
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“Our cardiovascular health hub will develop a research arm of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance–a pan-Canadian network of nearly 200 cardiovascular health experts and advocates working to improve cardiovascular health for women in Canada” – Dr. Kerri-Anne MullenLearn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database and CWHHA.
Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services (JEPS) Hub
Objective: The overall aim of the JEPS Hub is to expand access to models of care and health services that: (i) meet all service users with unconditional positive regard; (ii) provide reliable information on culturally safe options for care; (iii) respect their autonomy; (iv) are free from mistreatment and discrimination.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Saraswathi Vedam, University of British Columbia
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
“The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Hub will enhance quality and safety in perinatal services for women and gender-diverse people by working with communities, clinicians, researchers, and educators to expand access to person-centred, rights-based models of care, and representation in the perinatal workforce.” – Dr. Saraswathi Vedam
Learn more: Visit the Funding Decisions Database to learn more about the project and see the full research team.
The Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition Coordinating Centre
Objective: The coordinating centre collaborates with each hub, as well as across the hubs, to develop a symbiotic approach to identifying and implementing solutions to pan-Canadian challenges in women's health.
Principal Investigator: Canadian Partnership for Women and Children Health
What impact is your hub hoping to have on the health of women and gender-diverse people?
"We are thrilled to work alongside top-tier Canadian women and gender-diverse health researchers. As they generate evidence, we will leverage coordination, collaboration and communication to translate their work for real-world impact."
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