A Month in Review: Conference Recap
Dr. Arlene Astell stands in front of a poster for the Accessible Tablet Workshops hosted by Juanita Atton these past two years at CAG 2022.
This past month, the DATE Lab members were busy getting ready to present at various conferences and events around Canada and the USA.
Two conferences of interest that we introduced last month were the AGE-WELL (Aging Gracefully across Environments using Technology to Support Wellness, Engagement and Long Life) Conference that took place in Regina, Saskatchewan from October 18-20 and the Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) Conference which also took place in Regina, Saskatchewan from October 20-22 2022.
In our last newsletter edition we introduced the projects being presented at CAG (click here) and AGE-WELL (click here). Although not all lab members were not able to attend in person, poster and oral presentations gained a lot of interest at both conferences.
PhD student Mary Hynes was especially busy this past month attending three major conferences! Here is what she had to say about her experience at CAG and AGE-WELL:
PhD student Mary Hynes presents her poster at CAG 2022.
I was fortunate to present at three conferences within the past month. It felt quite strange to meet in person and talk face to face.
At the AGE-WELL Conference in Regina, I presented a poster that shared examples of older adults co-designing and co-creating research projects that impact older adults. Older adults as co-developers should lead to health solutions that are more acceptable to the older adults the research is for. A town hall at the end of the AGE-WELL conference gave trainees an excellent opportunity to hear about future research goals and to add suggestions and additional viewpoints.
For the Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) Educational and Scientific meeting in Regina I presented a poster on the current state of my scoping review that is examining older adult leadership in health support groups. I found the presentation from CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) to be extremely helpful in explaining all the opportunities available to trainees. It was much easier to understand in person than the on-line presentations that have been available these past three years. It was also fantastic to speak to poster presenters about their work and I even learned an interesting research presentation technique from a fellow presenter.
To hear more about Mary’s experience at the GSA (Gerontological Society of America) Conference, click here.
Dr. Arlene Astell also had a few words to say about the two conferences:
Dr. Arlene Astell & colleague stand in front of Katherine Bak’s poster on MCI@Work
October 16-22nd, Regina, Saskatchewan, was the location for two of the fist in-person conferences since the pandemic started in March 2020. Since 2015 the annual conferences of AGE-WELL and the Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) have been held back to back in the same place to facilitate attendance at both. AGE-WELL is Canada’s aging and technology network and the leader in transdisciplinary Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) training. All DATE lab members join the EPIC training program and have successfully participated in summer schools, the annual trainee conference, and hackathons.
DATE lab members were very busy at AGE-WELL 2022 with five poster presentations, one innovation talk, and one drinks’n’demos table. The posters informed attendees about Sukriti Sachdev’s Bachelor’s project on “Engaging cognitive domains of people with dementia during tablet gameplay” while Mary Hynes presented her Master’s work on “Older Adults Co-designing Research Projects”.
DATE lab postdoctoral researcher Dr Anne-Marie Levy’s poster “MCI | Dem in the workplace: Exploring the experiences, perceptions and needs of employers accommodating workers who identify with MCI/Dem on the job” represented some of the early findings from our AGE-WELL funded Cog@work project, joint with Univerity of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University.
Erica Dove’s doctoral research poster on “Falls-Related Psychological Concerns in Dementia: Can Technology Play a Role?” attracted a visit from the CAG conference keynote speaker, Professor Kim Delbaere, from Neuroscience Research Australia who is an expert in this field.
We also had a poster and Drinks’n’Demo with our partner SaTS lab at York University, on prompting people with dementia through daily tasks. Additionally, members of the MCI@work project (joint with UWaterloo) – doctoral candidate Sheida Marashi and expert with lived experience Rochelle Michaud - delivered one of the eight Innovation Talks about co-creating technologies with people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Finally, we also had an invited poster on “Social isolation and the role of age-tech in a post-COVID world” (Clayton & Astell, 2022) in a special session highlighting the AGE-WELL special edition of the HealthCare Managers Forum
DATE lab members were also busy at CAG with four posters and three oral presentations. Mary Hynes presented on her experience on “Co-Designing Research Projects with Older Adults and Research Partners” as well as her master’s scoping review on “Older adult group support and leadership for health management and Improvement”.
The MCI@work team including doctoral candidate Katherine Bak and postdoctoral researcher Dr Kristina Kokorelias presented a poster on “Experiences with workplace accommodations to support individuals with young onset dementia or mild cognitive impairment” which was visited by Dr Anne-Marie Borman from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who is working on a similar topic.
Juanita Atton’s poster on our “Accessible tablet workshops for individuals with dementia” was very popular with many inquiries about setting up tablet activities.
Oral presentations included Erica Doves’ doctoral research on “Falls-Related Psychological Concerns and Dementia: Learning Through Exergaming” in a session on exercise programs for older adults, including those with dementia.
Two DATE lab presentations – Melvyn Tafri’s Bachelor’s project “Testing feasibility of a self-management app for individuals living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment” and the RESILIEN’T teams’ “RESILIENT-T: Field Testing a New Self-Management App for Older Adults” – were both presented in a session on technology for aging.
Overall the five days in Regina were busy and successful for the DATE lab and we celebrate the dedication, commitment and motivation of our wonderful team – well done everyone!