McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging

📝Working on a proposal in health and aging? The CIHR Project Grant competition (Fall 2025) is open. Let’s strengthen your research through with community engagement.

We help you plan, partner, and communicate with older adults, caregivers, and health system providers.

We can help with:
✔️ Community engagement planning and partnership facilitation
✔️Letters of support
✔️ Plain language and accessibility review and support
✔️Knowledge mobilization planning
✔️Facilitating connections with older adults, caregivers, and researchers with shared research interests and expertise

🔗 Find out how we can help: collaborative-aging.mcmaster.ca/strengthening-…

#CIHR #AgingResearch #HealthResearch #PatientEngagement #HealthAging #McMasterUniversity

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Lance Dingman, a cherished member of our community. Lance brought wisdom, warmth, and generosity to every conversation. He made a lasting impact, offering insight that challenged, inspired, and grounded us.

Lance was also a tireless advocate for mental health, accessible housing and disability rights. His lived experience shaped and strengthened our work in lasting ways, and his advocacy left a meaningful legacy beyond the Collaborative. We are grateful to have known him, and he will be dearly missed.

Here is an interview with Lance we proudly shared during his time with us: collaborative-aging.mcmaster.ca/about-us/our-m…

His words will always stay with us.

What happens when statistical trial results and lived experiences tell different stories?

A new paper led by @ACHRU_McMaster explores the value of combining quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate a lifestyle intervention for older adults with diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Despite no statistically significant quantitative findings, interviews with patients, caregivers, and providers revealed meaningful changes:
✔️ stronger team collaboration
✔️ improved system navigation
✔️ more person-centered care
✔️ improved self-management of chronic conditions
✔️ increased potential for virtual delivery of care

By integrating lived experience with statistical findings, the paper demonstrates how mixed methods can clarify next steps for research, care delivery, and policy.

Read in Trials (May 2025): Transforming healthcare by prioritizing qualitative and quantitative clinical trial evidence: evaluating the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit’s Community Partnership Program for Older Adults (ACHRU-CPP)
🔗doi.org/10.1186/s13063…

✍️Authors: Kathryn Fisher, Soo Chan Carusone, @RebeccaGanann, @MaureMarkleReid, Melissa Northwood & Diana Sherifali

💡Funded by @CIHR_IRSC SPOR PIHCI Network, with support from: @_DiabetesAction, @MIRAMcMaster,
@macnursing, @reseau1quebec, @FRQS1, @SHNFoundation, CIHR Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (@MaureMarkleReid), @MacCollabAging

📢 Trainees! Want to make your research more inclusive + impactful? Join us May 9 for Partnered Research 101 — a workshop on building equitable, community-informed research partnerships.

🗓 Date: Friday, May 9, 2025
🕘 Time: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
📍 Location: L.R. Wilson Hall, McMaster University, Room 1056

In this interactive session, you’ll explore:
✅ Why community engagement matters
✅ Practical strategies for building equitable partnerships
✅ Real-world examples across the research cycle
✅ How to refine your lay abstracts

🔗 Register now! collaborative-aging.mcmaster.ca/events/partner…

Everyone is welcome — undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs from all institutions! Feel free to share widely across your networks.
#ResearchDoneInPartnership #AgingResearch

Trainees: Are you planning to submit an application to our Partnership in Research Fellowship to support meaningful and ethical engagement of older adults and/or caregivers in your research?

The deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 15, 2025! Apply now: collaborative-aging.mcmaster.ca/funding/partne…