Dr. Heather McNeil
As an undergraduate health sciences student, Dr. Heather McNeil’s interest in the aging experience inspired her to take a course in the theories of aging. Her curiosity grew and, after graduation, she accepted a position at an assisted living home.
“That was a really eye-opening experience. It didn’t match up to what I learned in school, and I knew it was an area ripe for growth opportunities, change and positive impact,” reflects Dr. McNeil, a former AGE-WELL EPIC trainee who now works at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
Dr. McNeil returned to university for graduate work focused more on the social science aspects of aging. While doing a PhD in aging, health, and well-being at the University of Waterloo, she was introduced to AGE-WELL through her supervisor, Dr. Paul Stolee, an AGE-WELL researcher. A cornerstone of their research work together was Dr. McNeil’s co-creation of a group called Seniors Helping as Research Partners (SHARP).
Dr. McNeil explains: “The SHARP approach of nothing about us without us was fundamental to our research and continues to this day. It has stuck with me and, in my current NRC role, I am building an experts by experience group. It’s more commonplace today but, at that time, it was novel.”
In 2018, as a postdoctoral fellow, she furthered her connection to AGE-WELL as an EPIC trainee under Drs. Josephine McMurray of Wilfrid Laurier University and Dr. Heidi Sveistrup of University of Ottawa. Through EPIC, Dr. McNeil worked on DRiVE (Developing Regional Health Innovation Ecosystems), which examined how technology innovation can be fostered and driven by creating strong regional collaborations between users, researchers, policymakers, practitioners and industry.
Understanding, valuing and leveraging different expertise to approach a problem from diverse angles has been an enduring theme in Dr. McNeil’s career. It began early in her academic career, solidified in her time at AGE-WELL, and carries forward to her present role as program advisor for the NRC’s Aging in Place Challenge program. This program is an investment by the federal government to focus on improving the quality of life of older adults and their personal caregivers through innovation for safe and healthy aging in support of a sustainable model for long-term care that shifts the focus toward preventive home and community-based care.
“The hope is that the legacy for the NRC’s Aging in Place Challenge program will be technologies and innovations that are on their way to the marketplace, recommendations and guidelines that help support that adoption of technology, and all of that will help create the ecosystem of support for older Canadians’ choices to stay at home, live well and prevent transitions in care,” says Dr. McNeil.
She recognizes how instrumental EPIC training was in preparing her for future success. “The approaches and skills I learned through AGE-WELL are fundamental in my work today. It’s present in the importance I put on collaborating and consulting early, often and throughout everything we do; taking a multidisciplinary approach to problems to think about what we’re doing from various angles and leveraging the best of people’s expertise to solve a problem; and the idea of building the ecosystem around AgeTech and growing that network.”
Dr. McNeil feels the momentum behind AgeTech and is optimistic about the future. “Before I joined AGE-WELL, when I started thinking about aging challenges, I felt a little bit alone. I didn’t know there was such energy, enthusiasm and effort going toward making aging a positive journey by reframing how we think about it. What excites me is there’s a cohort of us; we’re making noise around it and working towards this bigger, better picture.”