Grant: Oper Grant:eHealth Innov Partnership Program(eHIPP)-Seniors w Complex Care Needs

Seniors are the largest growing proportion of our population in Canada, and they are living longer than previous generations, so there is a greater chance that they will develop multiple chronic conditions. Optimizing care for people with multiple chronic diseases is challenging, so different tools have been created to overcome them. However, most tools are created for only one disease (e.g., diabetes), which doesn't recognize the fact that many older adults have two or more chronic conditions. The goal of our research project is to improve the health of older adults by creating and testing a tool that can combine the care of two or more chronic conditions, which commonly affect older adults (e.g., diabetes, depression). First, we will enhance our tool with the help of our technology partner to include more diseases and features, and then we will implement it across different community settings across Ontario and Alberta (e.g., seniors' centers, primary care clinics, hospitals); we will also make our tool accessible through the Internet so seniors can use it at home. Lastly, we will carry out a randomized control trial to test how well this tool can help seniors better manage multiple chronic conditions on their own. This study will also help us to decide whether we can implement, and spread our tool more widely (e.g., different cities and provinces across Canada).