Grant: Project Grant

One in three Canadian adults live with obesity. For people with severe obesity, surgery is the most effective treatment option when other treatments haven't worked well enough. But people often wait over two years for this surgery. During this long wait, up to 6 out of 10 people give up. Many quit even before seeing a surgeon. Why do people give up? They don't get the help and clear facts they need. Almost half of patients say their questions go without answers. People look for answers online, but most websites are hard to trust or understand. Our solution: We want to build BE-Ready, a free website that gives people reliable facts while they wait for surgery. Patients, their families, and healthcare teams will help us build this website. This way, we know it will truly help people. The website will give each person the right facts at the right time, based on what they need and believe about their health. How We Will Build BE-Ready: Step 1: Talk with patients and healthcare teams - Find out what facts people need most - Learn the best ways to share these facts Step 2: Create easy-to-read content - Write content that anyone can understand and feel welcome with Step 3: Design the website with users - Work with patients to make sure the website is simple to use - Test different versions until we get it right Step 4: Pre-Test - Give 80 patients access to the website at four hospitals - See if it works, is safe, and keeps people going Our team has experts in most of the areas that are involved in weight loss surgery. Most key, we have patients who have lived through this journey. National health groups will help us share BE-Ready across Canada. What BE-Ready Will Do: BE-Ready will guide patients during their wait for surgery. At the end, our goal is to help fewer people give up and other diseases with long waits could use this model too. This project will turn a hard waiting time into a time of learning and going.