Dr. Howard Abrams leads a team that is pioneering an innovative solution to the gap in housing for older adults, along with providing health supports so that they can age at home with dignity. It’s called NORC – short for Naturally Occurring Retirement Community. What is a NORC? Everything from a co-op to a condo to an apartment building where older people make up the majority of residents. “Most older Canadians want to age in place, they want to age at home…it's where they've lived most of their life, and they know how to do that best,” says Dr. Abrams. So he and a team at the UHN NORC Innovation Centre in Toronto are helping to organize a structure for providing the necessary supports that allow these hubs of older adults to age in place as opposed to moving into a residential home or long term care. In addition to identifying and organizing a building to become a NORC, the UHN NORC Innovation Centre supports can include helping residents get to doctors appointments, and providing medical expertise for managing everything from foot care to cardiac issues to high blood sugar due to diabetes. There are now three NORC Innovation Centre projects up and running in Toronto, with more in the works. Dr. Abrams explains that the project team is gathering evidence and data for publication that will lead to proof of concept for NORC’s. If successful the goal is to scale this innovative solution for older adults across Ontario and the country.
Check out season 3 of Your Complex Brain
Dr. Gelareh Zadeh’s pioneering research in brain tumours
Sleep disruption research by UHN’s Dr. Tatyana Mollayeva shows the impact on recovery from brain injury, cognitive reaction
Hunting the origin cell of Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma
Leveraging the human microbiome to be a therapeutic agent
UHN’s Dr. Cristina Nostro pioneers stem cell research to cure Diabetes
Identifying novel acute pain treatments following major surgery
Pioneering UHN research targets long-term complications of liver transplantation
Dr. Andrew Boozary prescribes housing to curb homelessness
Checkout Season 2 of Your Complex Brain
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee has transformed lung transplant worldwide with his medical discoveries
Pioneering the use of virtual reality devices to restore vision
Dr. Rama Khokha on her breakthrough to map the biology of pancreatic cancer
Promising new treatment for Parkinson’s Disease
Dr. Eleanor Fish pioneers research using Interferons to treat virus outbreaks
Dr. Jonathan Irish pioneers Augmented Reality in Cancer Surgery
Pioneering a Diagnosis for CTE
A new toolkit for LTC to help care of residents during an outbreak
Dr.Gordon Keller on his ground breaking research to advance stem cell based therapies
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