Geras Centre for Aging Research

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Last week, the McMaster Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Update In Geriatrics Planning Committee came together to celebrate this year's award recipients. Join us at this year’s Update in Geriatrics Conference for the official Awards presentation! McMaster University Department of Medicine McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences

Congratulations to our incredible GERAS trainees presenting at the 2024 MIRA & Labarge Knowledge Exchange! We are so proud of all your hard work and can’t wait to see the impact you’ll make! ⭐️

Huge congratulations to our Geras trainees— Ashlee Azizudin (MSc in Health Research Methodology), Konrad Grala (MSc in Biomedical Engineering), Teshan Dias (MSc in Global Health), and Dr. Hajar Abu Alrob (PhD in Health Research Methodology)— on successfully defending their theses! 👏👏✨

Polypharmacy and Deprescribing: A New Approach to Medication Management for Older Adults (Wednesday McMaster Textbook of Medicine) Polypharmacy—the use of multiple medications—has become increasingly common among older adults. Did you know that over 60% of individuals aged 65+ take at least five prescription medications, and more than 20% use over ten? This rising trend calls for a careful evaluation of medication use and the practice of deprescribing. Deprescribing is the planned process of reducing or stopping medications that may no longer be beneficial or could even be causing harm. By addressing inappropriate polypharmacy, healthcare professionals can optimize medications, enhance patient care, and potentially reduce healthcare costs. Drs. Kate Lim, Alexandra Papaioannou, Sharon Marr, and Justin Lee from our McMaster University Department of Medicine have contributed to a new chapter on this complex issue, providing strategies for healthcare professionals to manage polypharmacy effectively. To learn more, check out "Polypharmacy and Deprescribing." - https://lnkd.in/gP2SYZKq.

Dr. Justin Lee, a geriatrician with our St. Peter’s Hospital, will be working with our health information technology services department to create a frailty scoring system within Epic, our state-of-the-art hospital information system. Scores would give our clinicians such as doctors, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists a full picture of patients’ frailty, so they can best support them, says Lee, a researcher with the Geras Centre for Aging Research, a centre at Hamilton Health Sciences that’s affiliated with McMaster University. Lee is leading this research project in partnership with Geras and the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. https://lnkd.in/g-xrbdkv #HHSresearch #hospital #healthcare #hamont

Hamilton Health Sciences' Research Awareness Month kicked off with a Research Social, where winners of the 2024 DRIVE Spark Funding Competition were announced. Congrats to Medloaner, a company providing AI-powered supply chain optimization of surgical procedure kits; Power of Play Innovations for a creating a child-friendly, lightweight hand strength measurement tool; and Sixth Sense for radar-based gait speed measurement in older adults. Winners are receiving seed funding to support critical milestones on their commercialization journey. Dr. Leyla Soleymani from McMaster University delivered the keynote address. Soleymani is pioneering the development of new knowledge, materials, and technologies aimed at engineering universal miniaturized biosensors capable of analyzing specific biomarkers related to health and disease. There was applause all around, and everyone celebrated with a visit to the gelato stand. 👏 🍨 #HHSresearch #hospital #healthcare #hamont

Congratulations to all the winners of the Hamilton Health Sciences Drive Spark competition! These innovative solutions are driving the future of care and improving the well-being of countless individuals! ✨

Wonderful afternoon highlighting McMaster Institute for Research on Aging & Geras Centre for Aging Research collaborations and the official launch of macPAGE! Dr. Patricia Hewston shared her journey from undergrad to early career researcher - empowering future leaders in #Research & #ClinicalCare! 👩🏻💻 ✨

Had the opportunity to share the findings of our work on developing the machine learning (ML) algorithm to predict fragility fracture at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). We found gradient boosting was the best method to predict the risk of fragility fracture compared to logistic regression, random forest, decision tree, lasso, elastic net and neural network. The explainable/interpretable (XAI) analysis through SHAP demonstrated that total hip BMD, femoral neck BMD, previous fracture, lumber spine BMD, age, weight, menopause status, osteoporosis status, sex and walk were the important features for predicting fragility fracture. The SHAP interaction analysis revealed how these features interacted with other features. Total hip BMD had the highest interaction with sex, which indicates the risk of fragility fracture for women increased as the total hip BMD decreased. Grateful to Osteoporosis Canada for the support. Angela M. Cheung Alexandra Papaioannou Lehana Thabane, PhD International Osteoporosis Foundation McMaster Institute for Research on Aging Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences #ASBMR2024 #Fracture #MachineLearning #BoneHealth #Aging