Health & aging

The growing importance of eld- erly people in our society cannot be ignored. Demographic changes, the success of health research at staving off illness, and improvements in the public’s nutrition and physical condition all contribute to increasing life expectancy. This inevitably brings significant consequences for public finances. Health re- search has always tried to stay ahead of the curve; thus, aging research has been growing in importance for several years now, similar to the focus that was placed on pediatrics at the be- ginning of the twentieth century. New medical specializations such as geriatricardiology, geriatric psychology and geriatric endocrinology are emerging. Health-related geriatrics and gerontology, or Health and Aging Research, is uniquely complex in that the average elderly person has at least three major diag- nosed diseases. Science can no longer study isolated patholo- gies: for example, it must study the relationship between neuron degeneration, hypertension, and chronic pulmonary obstruction taken together. The complexity and interrelatedness of the vari- ous pathologies have led to never-before-seen interdiscipli- nary collaboration. Montreal is a leading centre in this interdisci- plinarity.

Montreal’s distinctiveness for health and aging research

This document had been prepared by: Montréal International