UBC IDEAlab

We ❤️ our nurses

During the recent Spring Break, our team hosted two high school students, Diane and Emma, as part of ’s Research Exploration Opportunity. The students spent a week at our lab learning about our projects through interactive and hands on experiences. This included working with industry and patient partners to design new assistive technologies for older adults, as well as clinical site visits for our Indigenous VR & Digital Companion projects!

We’re grateful for the opportunity to present our work at the International Society for Gerontechnology (ISG) 15th World Conference in Vancouver

We’re thrilled to share our latest study with and , where we present our qualitative findings from walk-along interviews in the neighbourhood with 26 participants living with mild to moderate dementia.

Source: Wong, J. O. Y., Chaudhury, H., Seetharaman, K., Randa-Beaulieu, C., Hung, L., Davies, D., & Ren, L. H. (2026). Exploring the Cognitive Aspects of Walking in the Neighbourhoods among People Living with Dementia. The Gerontologist, gnag014. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnag014

We are excited to be part of the International Society for Gerontechnology (ISG) 15th World Conference as one of the collaborating institutions for in Vancouver.

From March 26-29 at SFU Harbour Centre, members of the will be sharing 12 presentations across oral sessions, posters, and a site visit to our lab in the UBC Gateway Health Building. Our team is looking forward to contributing to conversations on dementia care, aging, co-design, virtual reality, social robots, sleep, and person-centred innovation in health care.

Swipe through to see the full list of presentations from our team and come say hi if you’re at the conference!

What’s the role of robotic pets in hospitals?

In the recent issue of AACN Advanced Critical Care, Dr. Lillian Hung, Victoria Huang, and Darwin Lai reflect on the use of PARO & LOVOT in acute care hospitals.

Last week, the Long-Term Care Learning Community project team, led by Dr. Lillian Hung and Dr. Krisztina Vasarhelyi, hosted the first Dementia Care Transitions Learning Community training workshop at Vancouver General Hospital, bringing together leaders, frontline staff, community partners, people with lived experience, caregivers, and researchers.

We were honored to have Dr. Victor Rentes, Visiting Scholar and Postdoctoral Fellow from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto (), facilitate a session on Learning Health Systems, including the LHS framework and Self-Assessment Tool. The presentation supported the Learning Community in engaging in meaningful group discussions on potential barriers and mitigation strategies.

Thank you to our PhD student Joey Wong for sharing patient journey mapping insights, and to Cameron Fani for helping set a welcoming tone that made space for respectful, open, and constructive dialogue.

A sincere thank you as well to our partners: BC SUPPORT Unit, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Community Engagement team, PQI and Quality Teams, Vancouver Community LHS program, and the VCH/SFU Embedded Research Program, as well as the Training Learning Community working group for your continuous support and collaboration.

Team Member Spotlight ✨
Gloria Loi! 🫶
We want to share another Team Member this Wednesday with you. 🥰Gloria is a registered nurse and research and modern technologies to facilitate aging. Thank you for being part of IDEA

Congratulations! Margaret is the Alumni Stars of UBC applied Science 🥰🫶🥳🥳
All the best and we are happy to have you. We loved reading the interview 🥰😍

Meet the Team! 😍✨
Let us introduce Christine to you today! Being involved since several year we are happy to have her in our team! Being a Founding Patient & Family Partner of both Providence's Care Experience Advisory Committee and their Practice-based Research Challenge Committee we are happy to have her. Thanks and we love working with you 🥰😻

Project Highlight - VR Project 😃🫶
We want to decrease agitation and improve the quality of life among residents. A big thank you to Flora To-Miles our Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Lead! 🥰