Following a competitive, nationwide call for proposals, AGE-WELL is pleased to announce funding for nine cutting-edge research projects through its 2024 AgeTech Advance: Healthy Aging Research Program (HARP), aimed at advancing the development and application of technology-enabled solutions that support healthy aging.

The nine projects involve 47 investigators from 21 universities and research centres across five Canadian provinces. These projects are supported by a total investment of $2.4 million comprised of funds from AGE-WELL and matched contributions from 18 partners spanning multiple sectors including academic, industry and community organizations.

HARP supports mature, innovative projects that can produce results within 18 months. The new projects will advance novel technology-enabled solutions, or validate existing technologies in new environments, that enhance older adults' lives and promote healthy aging. These projects will also support a better understanding of the development, implementation and adoption of AgeTech, while ensuring it meets the needs of at-risk and equity-deserving groups of older adults and care partners.

"Investing in AgeTech research is a crucial way we are helping to accelerate healthy aging solutions for Canadians," says Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Scientific Director and CEO of AGE-WELL, Canada's technology and aging network. "I am also pleased that through HARP, our network is prioritizing support for early career researchers – our next generation of AgeTech leaders. This speaks to the depth of research talent in Canada that is absolutely necessary for the advancement of solutions to keep pace with the diverse needs of older adults in all communities."

All nine projects are led or co-led by early career researchers within five years of their first academic appointment.  

Notably, a key component of these research projects is actively engaging older adults and caregivers to make sure solutions align with real-world needs and priorities.

The new projects cover a broad range of technologies and services, and address all of AGE-WELL's Challenge Areas. These are the nine research projects being funded through HARP:

• Accelerating technology-based solutions for home care
  Led by Dr. Atena Roshan Fekr (The KITE Research Institute at University Health Network), this team is co-creating an advanced remote monitoring system for older adults in home care. The system aims to improve accuracy and reduce false alarms. Through stakeholder engagement and robust data collection from living labs, the team will focus on activities of daily living monitoring and fall detection.
• Validating an online patient navigation platform for seniors living with HIV
  Dr. Kristina Kokorelias (Sinai Health) and team are collaborating with digital health experts to engage older adults living with HIV on refining and testing an online patient navigation platform that makes it easier for them to navigate and access specialized geriatric and mental health care.
• Outreach and education to familiarize older adults with virtual emergency departments
  Dr. Justin Hall and Dr. Sander Hitzig (Sunnybrook Research Institute) and team are working with older adults, family caregivers and health care providers to co-design strategies and education materials to increase older adults' comfort with and access to virtual emergency departments
• Assessing social connections in care homes using real-time location data
  Dr. Andrea Iaboni (The KITE Research Institute at University Health Network) with her team and partners are evaluating the use of real-time location data from a retirement home nurse-call system to help care providers identify older adults who need support to improve their social connections.
• A convenient, adaptive mobile health tool for dementia prevention
  Dr. Jonathan Rush (University of Victoria) leads a research project focused on promoting physical activity to help prevent dementia. Taking a personalized approach, the research team is integrating mobile cognitive assessments into real-time smartphone and wearable sensors to monitor older adults' cognitive function and physicial activity to offer them accessible interventions designed to reduce dementia risk.
• Leveraging virtual reality storytelling to support older Indigenous adults' connections while in hospital
  Dr. Lillian Hung (University of British Columbia) and team, in partnership with Indigenous stakeholders, are building on their established protocol and tools to create Indigenous VR storytelling videos that offer Indigenous patients with dementia a way to connect to their interests, and decrease loneliness and feelings of stress and anxiety while in the hospital.
• Bolstering evidence for a technology-assisted therapeutic walking program
  Led by Dr. Nancy Mayo (McGill University), this research project measures how technology to reward a good gait pattern added to the well-established Walk-Best Program impacts older adults' gait pattern, walking activities and brain health outcomes in order to promote the use of the program across Canada.
• A voice-based AI banking tool for older adults
  Dr. Joanna McGrenere (University of British Columbia) leads a research team addressing how to extend older adults' autonomous use of financial technology. Through co-design, they are developing a voice assistance prototype for online banking support and establishing design guidance for financial technology development to better support older adults.
• Wearable technology to monitor older adults' mobility and provide feedback
  Dr. Marla Beauchamp (McMaster University) and the research team are building on their existing technology that incorporates GPS with other movement sensors to monitor mobility in older adults. They are developing new techniques to analyze the comprehensive movement data to help older adults better manage their mobility. The team will also make the techniques freely available to other researchers to advance healthy aging solutions.
  

Read more about the research projects here.

HARP is made possible by funding through the Strategic Science Fund (SSF), jointly administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Health Canada, and through matching funds from private and public sector partners.

"Congratulations to AGE-WELL on their groundbreaking research projects advancing healthy aging for Canadians," says the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. "Through the Strategic Science Fund, our government is empowering Canadian scientists to develop transformative tools and therapies that could revolutionize health outcomes, both in Canada and globally."

Research is one of three interconnected pillars through which AGE-WELL is advancing Canada's aging innovation ecosystem. The other pillars are capacity building and technology adoption. Together, these pillars support a strong innovation pipeline from foundational research to technology adoption. Read more here.