A key researcher with the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) will take a lead role in developing an optimal aging portal that will help to promote healthy aging and to make that knowledge widely available.

Dr. Parminder Raina

Parminder Raina, lead principal investigator of the CLSA, will provide scientific direction for the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal, a unique online information source that was announced today as part of the Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative.

Businesswoman and McMaster graduate Suzanne Labarge has given a gift of $10 million to McMaster University for a program sponsoring interdisciplinary research and a website portal on healthy aging that will provide accessible information for the public as well as health-care professionals, researchers and policy-makers.

The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal, available through a website, will be a unique information source with a wide array of information and tools to answer the many questions about healthy aging from Canadians, health-care providers and policy-makers.

“The aging of the population has become a pressing issue,” Dr. Raina told the Hamilton Spectator in an interview. “There is no other portal like this and we want to be the authoritative voice in healthy aging in Canada and around the world.”

The project will also look to engage key audiences through public talks, forums and media outreach.

In addition to the portal, the Labarge gift has also created the Labarge Optimal Aging Opportunities Fund, which will provide funding for research aimed at maximizing mobility, slowing chronic disease and tackling deadly infections. 

Sources: Hamilton Spectator and McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences