OTTAWA, August 13, 2026 – Ottawa Heart Institute researcher and scientist Jodi Edwards, PhD, will lead a new $5 million national research network focused on improving recovery and rehabilitation for women after heart-brain events such as stroke, heart attack, and cardiac arrest.
Funded over five years by Heart & Stroke, in partnership with Brain Canada, the RENEW Network (Redesigning Effective aNd Equitable systems of care for Women’s heart-brain recovery) will bring together researchers, healthcare providers, patients with lived experience and Indigenous partners from across Canada.
Although heart disease and stroke remain the leading causes of premature death among women in Canada, women are less likely than men to be referred to cardiac and stroke rehabilitation. Even when they do participate, existing programs often fail to account for factors such as menopause, reproductive hormone changes, mental health, caregiving responsibilities and barriers to accessing culturally safe care.
The goal of the RENEW Network is to redesign women’s heart and brain rehabilitation to take a whole-person approach into recovery, with research focused on:
- Menopause and recovery: Understanding how menopause, hormonal changes and hormone therapy may affect women’s recovery outcomes and ability to participate in heart-brain rehabilitation.
- Mental health: Developing tools and supports that address women’s specific needs, including co-developing with Indigenous partners a culturally safe tool for Indigenous women.
- New approaches to recovery: Testing innovative rehabilitation and mental health clinical trial interventions, such as mobile therapy and brain stimulation, to improve access, outcomes and quality of life.
- Data mapping: Using national level data to map existing referral pathways between cardiac and stroke rehabilitation and mental health services and simulate optimal referral systems.
“While we know that women are underrepresented in cardiac and stroke rehabilitation, simply increasing access to existing programs of care is not enough,” said Dr. Jodi Edwards, director of the Brain and Heart Nexus Research Program at the Ottawa Heart Institute, chair of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance, and lead of the RENEW Network. “We need to redesign recovery systems to address women’s sex-specific recovery factors and the barriers women face to accessible and equitable care across Canada.”
RENEW is the third national Research Network of Excellence in Women’s Heart and/or Brain Health funded by Heart & Stroke and its partners. Together, the networks are working to address gaps in women’s heart and brain health from prevention through recovery.
For more information
Read the official announcement from Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada for more information about the RENEW Network.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Jodi Edwards, please contact the liaison below.
Media contact
Leigh B. Morris
Media Relations Officer
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
613-316-6409 (cell)
lmorris@ottawaheart.ca