UBC IDEA Lab
Older adults are helping redesign aging research
At the UBC IDEA Lab, older adults aren’t studied from a distance. They sit at the table as co-researchers, shaping the questions we ask, the tools we build, and the way we share what we learn.
How we work
Research led together
IDEA Lab runs on Patient-Oriented Research, which means older adults and family caregivers aren’t brought in once the questions are already written, they’re in the room while the questions get written. Students, clinicians, and researchers sit alongside them; the direction moves both ways: older adults shape what a project becomes, and the project gets tested against what actually matters to them.
Most of the people doing this day to day are students from various disciplines such as nursing, computer science, and engineering. They work directly next to people decades older than them, and that age gap turns out to be useful. It’s where a lot of the better ideas start.
I watched people who could barely move get up and dance to the music. That’s when I understood what this research could actually do.
Lily Wong
Family Partner – Lily joined IDEA Lab through its first music-and-headphones study, now works across multiple projects
Research In Action
How older adults have contributed to projects
Three examples where an older adult’s reaction, not just a lab hypothesis, changed what actually got built.
The WhatMatters App
A tool that lets hospital and care staff quickly learn what calms a patient, what brings them joy, and what they care about. The app was co-designed from the start with Jim Mann credited as the project’s Knowledge User, alongside PI Dr. Lillian Hung and project lead Peter Zhao.
Uke Connect
A 12-week ukulele program that participants turned into something bigger: it closed with a public flash-mob performance from Burnaby Neighbourhood House to Metrotown Plaza – their call, not the research plan’s.
LOVOT Companion Robots
Rather than one pilot in one place, IDEA Lab ran the same study with LOVOT robots Mango and Kiwi in Canada, Singapore, and Hong Kong side by side because residents’ reactions differ by culture. These differences are meant to reshape the robot’s next version, not just get footnoted.
A lab built on relationships
Older adult partners are a part of the everyday life of the lab
Family and patient partners at IDEA Lab aren’t an advisory panel that meets twice a year. They’re at the weekly meetings, the summer gatherings, the conference posters, and the newsletter, the same spaces as the PhD students and the principal investigator.
Our Core Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Lillian Hung
Founder, UBC IDEA Lab
Canada Research Chair in Senior Care
UBC School of Nursing
Family & Patient Partners
Plus a rotating team of graduate and undergraduate trainees across Nursing, Computer Science, and Health Design.