The provincial government’s Healthy Seniors Pilot Project has funded the Centre for Innovation and Research in Aging (CIRA) to utilize the application CANImmunize.
The application, originally launched in 2014, allows users to easily keep track of and receive reminders for vaccinations. The project out of Fredericton will aim to give older adults in long-term care homes and retirement residencies access to the app and allow them, their families, and care providers to easily access their vaccination information.
“Right now, the developers are working on a new version of the platform specifically for the older adults in our study,” said Kelsey Rusk, the Project Coordinator with CIRA. “After beta testing, we’re going to get some feedback from older adults and our caregivers to see what people think of it, what they want changed, and what kind of things they want from the application.”
After the initial beta test, the project will recruit older adults to participate in CANImmunize to track their vaccinations.
“Around March we’re going to start recruiting participants in assisted and independent living and start tracking their records and getting their caregivers involved however they want to participate,” said Rusk.
CIRA will operate the pilot project out of York Care Centre in Fredericton, where their office is located.
Older adults need to be vaccinated against flu, shingles, pneumonia, and other viruses. The goal of the project is to allow them to track their own vaccinations with the help of an easy-to-use platform.
“This project was originally conceived almost over a year ago and vaccination rates for older adults at that time was still a very important topic because we were really trying to appease public health guidelines to get that vaccination record for people aged 65 or over to 80 percent,” said Justine Henry, Manager of Research Services at CIRA. “Those rates are much lower than that so it was very timely then. But, especially now with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the data we’re collecting is really taking on a whole new meaning.”
Henry says that the Covid-19 pandemic led them to add new questions into their research, especially in considering attitudes towards vaccinations.
“We’ll also be looking at their health habits and how immunization statuses may have changed since the pandemic began, but it’ll also be interesting to look at those metrics a year into the study because it’s sort of anticipated that maybe individuals are more compliant with getting the flu shot because of all the information that’s coming out about Covid,” said Henry.
CANImmunize is an application founded in 2014 and is currently being used in various organizations across Canada. This research will be the first time the platform will be directed specifically towards older adults in assisted or independent living.
The CEO of CANImmunize, Dr. Kumanan Wilson, is a physician-researcher at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is an alumnus of UNB and is excited to organize this pilot project out of New Brunswick.
“This project will enable family members and caregivers to know exactly which vaccines their loved one has received and when they need a second dose or booster, providing peace of mind,” Wilson said in a press release. “We hope that this solution can be rolled out to track adult vaccinations in long-term care and retirement homes across Canada.”
Liam Floyd is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
