Three New Brunswick researchers have been awarded $50,000 each from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, as part of the 2018 R3 competition, which recognizes leading researchers in the province.

The winners, announced Thursday evening at a gala in the Fredericton Convention Centre, are:

Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard (Université de Moncton) 
Nursing Homes Without Walls: A Model for Aging in Place
With the majority of seniors wanting to age at home, we require an efficient model of service delivery to ensure they are getting the services they need. Dupuis-Blanchard’s research explores the notion of nursing home personnel providing services to older adults living at home.

 Clive Baldwin (St. Thomas University)
Enhancing Well-Being in Later Life through Innovations in Narrative Care
Narrative care is an approach to health and healing that uses people's life experience (i.e., their life stories or narratives) to address the many challenges facing older adults that can result in feelings of loneliness, meaninglessness, anxiety, depression, and despair.  Research in the field of "narrative gerontology" has shown that approaches to care that involve some form of life story work (e.g., life review, life-writing, reminiscence) have a significant and positive impact in terms of health outcomes with this population.

Carole Goodine (University of New Brunswick)
Polypharmacy App to Improve Health Outcomes in Older Adults
Goodine’s work is developing a Polypharmacy App that aims to solve the simultaneous use of multiple drugs - which has become a major issue in the aging population. The App will result in a more efficient and accurate medication safety review - which will save hundreds of clinician hours and decrease high risk medication use and adverse effects.

“All five of our finalists are doing important work here in New Brunswick,” said NBIF Director of Research Lindsay Bowman in a statement. “We were thrilled to be able to profile them and their projects. The funding awarded tonight is an investment that will improve the quality of life for all New Brunswickers as they age.”

The gala included a keynote speech by ageism expert Ashton Applewhite, who said ageism is the last accepted form of prejudice and this has to change. 

All five research finalists were profiled on social media, and each had the opportunity to showcase their research video at the gala event.

Goodine also received the CBC Viewers Choice Award, receiving the most likes on social media. She received $15,000 in research funding from NBIF.

The R3 gala was the conclusion of three days of talks, keynote speakers, workshops and other activities focused on Innovations in Aging.