As the population of older adults in British Columbia continues to grow, the province is prioritizing their health and wellbeing, recognizing the importance of promoting healthy aging and providing services that support independence. And researchers across disciplines at UBC are working to harness the science of healthy aging to help people in British Columbia, across Canada, and around the world stay healthy, happy, and active longer into old age.

Pressing health areas, such as aging and chronic disease, demand a collaborative approach, and UBC Health complements efforts throughout the university and health sectors to connect diverse expertise and resources across disciplines to help advance education, research, and policy. UBC Health has partnered with the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging to support healthy aging research. The Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging brings together experts from different fields of research to investigate aging in a holistic way with the goal of defining pathways to deliver a future with healthy, optimized aging for all.

“This partnership enables UBC Health to meaningfully support interdisciplinary collaboration among groups and individuals committed to addressing the complex challenges of aging in BC,” says Teo Quay, Research Manager, UBC Health.

One of the collaborative pathways is a healthy aging funding stream for the Health Innovation Funding Investment (HIFI) Awards announced earlier this spring, which will support interdisciplinary research projects centred on maintaining seniors’ health and independence and preventing and treating diseases associated with aging. 

This partnership will help us achieve our goal of bringing together people from across the university and British Columbia to highlight diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives on healthy aging.

In addition, the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging is hosting Aging Better Together: Collaborating to Improve Outcomes Across British Columbia on November 19-20, in partnership with the UBC Okanagan Aging in Place Research Cluster, UBC Health, and the Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North. The two-day symposium will bring together experts, partners, and community members across disciplines for reflection, discussion, and engagement on the biological, social, cultural, and environmental determinants of healthy aging and strategies for prevention and intervention to increase health span and add quality years to life.

“The Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging is excited to partner with UBC Health on this symposium,” says Dr. Kim Schmidt, Research Director, Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging. “This partnership will help us achieve our goal of bringing together people from across the university and British Columbia to highlight diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives on healthy aging.”  

Registration for the symposium will open in the summer.

Posted May 4, 2023