News
AGE-WELL 2022 Conference: The Future is Us!
November 11, 2022
By: Karen Young
The team! Maddy’s looking off into the distance because she’s peering into the future of AgeTech, and also looking for Dr. Pham who is sadly not in this picture because she is always in meetings.
In October 2022, members of the Centre for Digital Therapeutics (CDTx) team flew to Regina to present on several projects from our portfolios at the 2022 AGE-WELL Conference. With the support of the Barrie Area Native Advisory Council (BANAC) and Mamaway Wiidokdaadwin, Raima and Maddy presented on our BANAC x UHN collaboration with the poster “Bridging culture and care in Indigenous communities: Integrating local and cultural adaptations into the service design of a diabetes remote self-management program.” Camila and Noor presented on our Caretown project with the poster “Towards a model of dyadic digital health for patients and caregivers living with heart failure.” Psst – read our journal article on the value of technology in supporting dyadic symptom management for heart failure here! We shared our work with leading academic and industry figures and made connections with people of all stripes who are all committed to the same cause – using technology to improve quality of life for ageing people. Dr. Pham attended to present on the CDTx’s work and to ensure that we didn’t cause too much chaos – I mean, terrify everyone with the incredible work we do. Yes, that’s it.
Fun fact: we have a number of CDTx’ers who are EPIC Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP). EPIC-AT is the training program that equips fellows to develop, implement and evaluate digital solutions across areas such as telemedicine, AI, and smart environments. It’s pretty epic, if I say so myself. Don’t punch me.
Maddy’s speaking through the finer points of rooting academic-community collaborations (BANAC x UHN) in Indigenous frameworks, while Raima provides a real-time demo of bant for a riveted attendee.
Pre-conference, making sure our beautiful posters were ready for presentation
At this point, you’re probably thinking, “if you keep mentioning AGE-WELL and EPIC but not explaining what they are, I’m not reading the rest of this.” Right on! AGE-WELL is Canada’s leading technology and aging network, driving research and innovation across the country at 46 partner institutions. EPIC is AGE-WELL’s national training platform, preparing trainees to be future leaders in digital health solutions for Canadians.
Noor and Camila in action, walking through the Caretown team’s work on exploring and developing technology for dyadic heart failure symptom management.
As an EPIC-AT Fellow, I attended a full day of thought-provoking workshops presented by AGE-WELL scientists during the Annual Meeting. I also got to experience Dr. Alex Mihailidis’ amazing beard firsthand. We learned about empathy-centred design, thinking through problems by using Dr. Jennifer Campos’ excellent pointers, “What makes people swear? What are their pain points?” and the importance of remembering the care and relationships that we facilitate through our work. As Dr. Mihailidis says, “we’re all ageing, or else you’re dead.” A poignant and funny reminder that we do this important work for our parents, grandparents, family, friends, communities, and last but not least - ourselves.
Peep Dr. Pham, Maddy, Noor, Raima, and Camila behind Dr. Mihailidis at the start of Drinks & Demos! You can’t see the beard here, but I promise it’s epic (I’ll stop).
What I loved about the Annual Meeting and Conference was meeting so many of the older folks and people with lived experience that make up a huge part of the AGE-WELL Network. AGE-WELL is special because it doesn’t just try to push boundaries, but bridges them to connect researchers, industry folks, and people with lived experience to build on many disciplines. We lived and breathed that transdisciplinary ethos at the Conference. Where else will you find a psychiatrist who is the head of an innovation accelerator, a cognitive neuroscientist, a health informatics trainee (me), a person living with dementia, and an industry representative all at the same table, working together to help solve each other’s’ problems? AGE-WELL, of course. I can’t wait to see what incredible work our AGE-WELL friends and colleagues have done at 2023’s conference. See you there!