The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal: A one stop shop to find out what to do to age optimally

Maureen Dobbins1, Brian Haynes, John Lavis, Anthony Levinson, Parminder Raina1 Professor and Scientific Director, National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools, McMaster University

CAG2014: Landscapes of Aging Critical Issues, Emerging Possibilities

Niagara Falls, ON October 18, 2014

Who is the Portal for? Why?

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What Are the Needs of Aging Canadians?• Stay active, healthy and

engaged• Age in home or community

To do so, seniors need immediate access to credible information

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Living Longer, Living Well

Systemic barrier to integrating care for older adults

“We do little to empower older adults and caregivers with the information they need to navigate the system.”

Recommended action to support aging in place“Invest more in health promotion and prevention in older adults.”

S. Sinha, “Report submitted to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and the Minister Responsible for Seniors on recommendations to inform a Seniors Strategy for Ontario,” December, 2012

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McMaster UniversityA Knowledge Hub for Optimal Aging

McMaster Optimal Aging Portal

Best Evidence/Evidence Summaries

Web Resource Ratings

Blog PostsSearch & Browse

Email Alerts

Components

Contributors - Researchers

Brian HaynesParminder RainaMaureen DobbinsJohn LavisAnthony Levinson

Key ContentEvidence Summaries, Web Resource Ratings, Blog Posts and Email Alerts

Evidence Summaries

What are they?Key messages from scientific researchWritten in plain language

Why are they useful?Translated from research jargonReady to be acted on

Web Resource Ratings

What are they?Evaluations of health resources on the internet

Why are they useful?Help you know which web-based resources to trust/not to trust

Blog Posts

What are they?Commentaries on what the research means

Why are they useful?Translated from research jargonPresented in article format

Content for professionals

What is there?Best evidence databases for:

CliniciansPublic health professionalsPolicymakers

Why are they useful?See what the pros useOutsmart your healthcare team

Email alerts

What are they?Lists of new content recently added to PortalWeekly or monthly email you opt in for

Why are they useful?Click on hyperlink in email to view content of interestKeeps you up to date with new researchTailored to your needs and preferences

Finding ContentBrowse and Search

Browse topics

What is the browse function?Look for Evidence Summaries, Web Resource Ratings and Blog Posts by topic

Why is it useful?We’ve categorized the content for youExplore an area of interest

Resource

Search topics

What is the search function?Enter search terms and search across citizen contentAlso see results for professionals

Why is it useful?Find more specific contentView relevant results for citizen information types and professionals

Vitamins

Search tips and caveats

Start search using broad, general terms

“diabetes”, “exercise”, “depression”

If too many results, refine your search terms

“exercise and falls”, “diabetes and heart disease”

Check for results across databases

Assessing Quality of ContentEvidence RaterWeb Resource Rater

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Evidence Rater: Contributing PlatformsContents• McMaster PLUS for clinical evidence (‘my health’)• Health Evidence for public health evidence (‘our

health’)• Health Systems Evidence for health systems evidence

(‘our system’)

Each re-coded to identify evidence relevant to 60+, health promotion & disease prevention, etc. and re-programmed to establish a common platform

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Evidence Rater: Functionality

Federated search optimized by role (citizen, clinician, public health practitioner or policymaker)Search results sorted by quality, relevance using a Evidence summariesLinks to scientific abstracts, full text Supplemented by PubMed Clinical Queries when no or limited resultsComplemented by ‘integrated resources’ (e.g., Medline Plus) and by prompts for other types of evidence and other rolesSupported by an evidence service for which users set the topics, relevance and flow

Web Resource Rater: Overview

Quality-rated, consumer-friendly health information relevant to older adults and their caregivers

Three stages of Web Resource Rating:

1. Assessing inclusion of websites

2. Assessing inclusion of web resources

from included websites

3. Assessing quality of included web

resources

Web Resource Rater: Inclusion Criteria

Websites must be:

A. Not directly funded

by a company trying

to sell you a product

or service

B. Relevant to optimal

aging 

C. Free access

Web resources

must be:

A. Not directly funded

by a company trying

to sell you a product

or service

B. Relevant to optimal

aging

C. Less than 5 years of

age

Web Resource Rater: Quality Criteria

Included web resources are rated for quality by two independent raters assessing: A. Use of scientific researchB. Whether it is clear who developed the

resource and howC. Ease of use

A ‘five-star’ overall rating is generated, weighted to favour web resources that use research evidence

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Web Resource Rater: Indexing

Type of productCategories

Health conditionsHealthcare deliveryHealthy aging practice

KeywordsActionable Message

Web Resource Rater: User Experience

Browse menu indexing

Keywords extracted from the web resource

Actionable message

Star rating (/5)

Web Resource Rater: New Content

Continually search for new websitesMonthly ‘harvesting’ of web resources from included websites (100/mth)Priority topics identified by experts

Examples:

Professional and Citizen searches

Professional Search: Clinician

Professional Search: Clinician

Professional Search: Clinician

Professional Search: Public Health

Professional Search: Public Health

Professional Search: Policymaker

Professional Search: Policymaker

Citizen Search

Citizen examples below

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Citizen Search

Social Media

A journalist can follow OAP on Twitter to get ideas and content for news stories with our ‘Hitting the headlines’ service showcasing the best available research evidence when a topic emerges suddenly in the news.@Mac_AgingNews

Time to Practice

Identify important/relevant topicsPractice searching the portal

Registration & Help

Help

What is the help content?Information and explanations about Portal features by topic

Where can I find it?

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Contact Information

Dr. Maureen Dobbins, RN, PhD dobbinsm@mcmaster.ca905-525-9140 ext. 20455

www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org