Page 21 - SREMI 2020 Annual Report

SOCIAL ISOLATION AND LONELINESS
Social isolation and loneliness worsen older peoples’ quality of life, risk of dementia, and contributes to 45,000 deaths per year in Canada - as much as smoking. Of course with COVID-19, social isolation and loneliness has dramatically increased. In response, Dr. Lee pivoted his research program to address this challenging issue. He collaborated with the Dr. Judy Lowthian, an Australian developer of a telephone support program (HOW RU) shown to reduce social isolation and loneliness, and together with a team of scientists and clinicians have submitted multiple funding applications to support this important project. The goal of the study is to explore how older Canadians prefer to receive virtual support and determine if telephone and video delivery of care can reduce social isolation and loneliness.
URINE METABOLOMICS
In February 2020, Dr. Lee’s team established the feasibility of comparing urine metabolites collected from older people with hip fractures in the ED with their post-operative metabolite pro le. The resulting pilot data has demonstrated a potentially novel pathophysiologic mechanism and a biomarker pro le to better understand and identify delirium. This work, while preliminary, has great potential to improve the prediction, prevention, recognition and treatment of delirium in older patients.
Dr. Lee continues to mentor multiple medical students, residents and junior faculty and authored 7 peer-reviewed publications with multiple abstracts accepted at both CAEP and SAEM annual conferences. His h-index has increased from 15 to 26 since joining SREMI.
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