Four New Brunswick-based teams of health researchers and private sector partners have been allocated more than CA$800,000 in funding to support the development and testing of their innovative solutions in brain health for seniors for completion within 18 months. The funding is being provided through the Senior’s Care-Strategic Innovation Fund — a joint partnership program between the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) and the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF).
New Brunswick leads Canada with respect to senior’s growth. The Senior’s Care Strategic Innovation Fund (SC-SIF) program is aimed at driving innovation in senior’s care by providing up to $200,000 in funding per project to accelerate the translation of research to products, services and practices that address the needs of aging adults and the challenges of an aging population.
The program supports clinicians and researchers to refine, test and validate innovative solutions in real-world settings and supports projects that can make a system-wide impact in aging and brain health.
CABHI and NBHRF are pleased to announce the first recipients of this program in 2017:
- Dr. Sarah Pakzad – U de Moncton – for the Development and Validation of the NFI (Neurocognitive Frailty Index) Prototype Application for Early Detection of Dementia in the Elderly;
- Dr. Erik Scheme and Dr. Emily Read – UNB – for the Validation and Scaling of the Mobile e-Chart Healthcare Software Platform for Long-Term Care Facilities, and eChart Healthcare Inc.;
- Dr. Dhirendra Shukla and Mr. Vikram Aditya Devaguptapu – UNB -, Connecting Family Caregivers of Seniors with Information and Resources to Support their Daily Care Giving Tasks and Responsibilities, and ServUs Inc.
- Dr. Carole Goodine and Collaborators (McGibbon, McIver, Jarrett, McDonald, Donovan – UNB, NBCC, HHN, MUHC, YCC), for the Polypharmacy App to Improve Health Outcomes in Older Adults.
2017 Recipients of the Seniors’ Care Strategic Innovation Fund, with Min. Lisa Harris, Minister of Seniors and Long-Term Care, Social Development, Government of New Brunswick and Dr. Bruno Battistini, CEO, President and Scientific Director, New Brunswick Health Research Foundation
“This Fund plays a pivotal role in enabling health research to move forward by filling a gap between the idea phase and the end-product phase,” said Dr. Carole Goodine. “With this funding each of our research projects will support innovative solutions that address real-world challenges faced right here in New Brunswick.”
“For our project, the funding will help us develop a novel navigation tool called ServUs,” said Dr. Dhirendra Shukla. “This will improve the quality of life of family caregivers of seniors.”
“Today marks another important step in our journey to ensuring seniors in New Brunswick have the best aging experience possible,” said Seniors and Long-term Care Minister Lisa Harris. “The first recipients of funding under the Seniors’ Care Strategic Innovation Fund will be researching and working on innovative products, services and practices that will help address the needs of New Brunswick seniors.”
SC-SIF supports innovative solutions that address the following themes:
- Aging in place: solutions that enable older adults with dementia to maximize their independence and age in the most appropriate setting of choice (eg. by reducing falls, addressing social isolation etc.)
- Caregiver support: solutions that support caregivers (formal and informal) in their care for older adults with dementia;
- Care coordination and navigation: solutions that assist older adults, caregivers and healthcare providers better coordinate and navigate care for older adults with dementia;
- Cognitive health:solutions that improve brain/cognitive health for aging adults and/or support the identification and assessment of adults at risk for dementia/cognitive impairment
“On behalf of CABHI, I would like to congratulate the 2017 recipients of the Seniors’ Care Strategic Innovation Fund,” said Ron Riesenbach, Vice-President Innovation & Chief Technology Officer at Baycrest Health Sciences & CABHI. “This program will help to bring solutions from point-of-care workers who are directly involved with patients, caregivers and families — to the forefront of innovation. We are thrilled to work together with the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation on this important partnership initiative.”
“Within 90 days, from the announcement, the Request-For-Application and the national review, we are announcing with our partner the allocation of the first of 3 competitions, investing $800,000 into four projects to be conducted over the next 18 months, from an initial budget envelope of $1.8M”, mentioned Dr. Bruno Battistini, President, CEO and Scientific Director of the NBHRF. “Time is for action as we anticipate that those selected projects will make a positive impact into seniors’ health, caregiver support, cognitive assessment and navigation in the community, in response to the NB Council on Aging Report recommendations and actionable items.”
