Media release McMaster Optimal Aging Portal provides trusted voice
Canadians find quality health information for healthy aging online
Hamilton, ON (October 1, 2014) – Canada’s aging baby boomers and others caring for
seniors are, more than ever, turning to the Internet to self-diagnose illnesses and find
information on issues related to aging, without knowing whether the information is
accurate or trustworthy.
Now the new McMaster Optimal Aging Portal is becoming the go-to place for
Canadians, care-givers and health professionals to find quality health and medical
information on senior life.
The McMaster University website, officially launched Oct. 1 in conjunction with
Canada’s National Senior’s Day as well as the United Nations International Day of Older
Persons, will serve as a trusted voice to guide the choices of citizens, caregivers, health
professionals and health system decision-makers on matters related to healthy aging.
The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal is found at http://www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org
The site is the premier health resource found on the home page of the Government of
Canada’s resource for seniors at www.seniors.gc.ca
The portal brings together research evidence about clinical, public health and health
systems questions, and presents it in various ways to discuss the key messages from
the research, how trustworthy it is, and how it can be acted upon.
The key features of the portal include evidence summaries that present the main points
from complex research documents in an easy-to-understand form; blog posts of
commentaries about what the scientific research on a topic actually means, and web
resource ratings, which help to sort through the masses of other online free resources
available on the internet.
The Optimal Aging Portal was created by a team of researchers at McMaster to
reinforce the university’s role as a leading authority in Canada on the study of aging.
To help the public learn more about the portal, two online discussions are planned. The
first webinar on Oct. 15 from 3 to 4 p.m. will focus on showing citizens how to use the
portal’s various features to find information on issues and health concerns. The second
webinar on Oct. 21 from 3 to 4 p.m., will focus on how the content of the portal is
evaluated, and specifically on the web resources ratings. Information on registration
may be found at www.mcmasterhealthforum.org
Comments
The Honourable Alice Wong: Canada’s Minister of State for Seniors and MP for
Richmond, B.C.:
“I congratulate McMaster University for developing the Optimal Aging Portal, an
invaluable resource on healthy aging which is also easily accessible through the
Government of Canada’s seniors.gc.ca website. By combining our efforts, we can
maximize results to make a lasting difference in the lives of seniors, caregivers, and
their families.”
Suzanne Labarge: Retired bank executive who has a keen interest in ensuring the
public has access to information that can promote healthy aging. In 2012 she donated
$10 million to the university to establish the Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative. She is the
current chancellor of McMaster University.
“With the web you don’t know who to believe and who to trust. There is so much
misleading information around and, frankly, a lot of people are selling snake oil. You
really want to know you’re doing something good for yourself, not something stupid. We
decided having a trusted source would be really important as part of the Initiative.”
Tina Falbo: A Hamilton resident who retired to become a caregiver for her mother, 87,
and her father, 88. She has assisted in user testing of the portal.
“The information on the portal is very, very useful to me. It presents timely issues, and
the research is scientifically based and written in easy to understand language.”
Parminder Raina: One of the leaders of the portal development, who is a professor of
the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He holds the Raymond and Margaret
Labarge Chair in Research and Knowledge Application for Optimal Aging at McMaster
University, and the Canada Research Chair in Geroscience.
“With the continual growth in the number of older adults, one of Canada’s most pressing
health and social policy issues is the support and care of our aging population. This
portal has been designed to make the best scientific evidence on how we can stay
healthy, active and engaged as we grow older, easily accessible and understandable to
a broad range of individuals.”
Anthony Levinson: An associate professor psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences
who leads the design and development of the website. He holds the John R. Evans
Chair in Health Sciences Educational Research and Instructional Development.
“There are many other online resources that deal with health and aging available, but
what sets the Optimal Aging Portal apart from the crowd is its emphasis on providing
only the best evidence, and telling you why it’s considered the best. The portal filters out
the noise and makes it easy to understand how scientific evidence and other types of
information can help you.”
Maureen Dobbins: A McMaster professor of nursing who oversees the process for
identifying and rating online resources are suitable for the portal.
“The portal includes a database of web-based items that you can watch, read, listen to
or interact with, that we have assessed for quality. We’ve done the homework, so you
can decide if these items are valuable to you.”
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The website is at http://www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org/
A full suite of multi-media content including high resolution photos and high definition
video is available at http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/media/mcmasteroptimalaging/ These include: o A cartoon video about the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal and its services
o Video interviews with
! Dr. Anthony Levinson, physician and leader of the design and
development of the website. He is an associate professor of psychiatry
and behavioural neurosciences of the Michael G. DeGroote School of
Medicine at McMaster.
! Dr. Doug Oliver, a Hamilton family physician and specialist in older
adults; associate professor of family medicine for the Michael G.
DeGroote School of Medicine. He is familiar with the portal.
! Suzanne Labarge, a retired bank executive and McMaster University’s
chancellor. She provided the funds to launch the portal through the
Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative at McMaster University.
! Tina Falbo, a caregiver for her parents. She has reviewed the website
as part of its initial testing.
For more information:
Veronica McGuire
Media Relations
Faculty of Health Sciences
McMaster University
[email protected]
905-525-9140, ext. 22169