Why AgeTech Matters More Than Ever in Canada | The AgeTech Podcast S5E3 with AGE-WELL’s Dr. Alex Mihalidis
When it comes to aging and technology, Canada has quietly been building something remarkable. In this conversation, I sat down with Dr. Alex Mihailidis – founding scientific director of AGE-WELL – to unpack what’s been happening behind the scenes over the past 15 years, and what the next chapter might look like. From their new innovation studio to reflections on what’s worked (and what hasn’t), this episode is part behind-the-scenes, part call to action. If you’re building, funding, researching, or just curious about the future of aging in Canada – this one’s for you.
Catch the full conversation on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or scroll down for the transcript (auto-generated, so pardon any oddities – the bots are still learning!)
Keren Etkin: Alex, welcome to the show.
Alex Mihailidis: Thank you, Karen. Thanks so much for having me this morning.
Keren Etkin: So, you’ve as a founding scientific director of AgeWell, you’ve been there from day one. Can you give us a little bit of the origin story of AgeWell, where it started and where it’s at today?
Alex Mihailidis: Sure. So it, you know, the origin probably started almost 15 years ago when, you know, I was having a meeting on a completely different unrelated topic with of the, you know, some of the, the, the more well established researchers in the area of aging and technology and artificial intelligence and you know, during that call they, they said, you know. This field is, is, is starting to grow in Canada, but it really needs some kind of backbone. It needs some kind of organization that can bring everyone together. And during that conversation, someone said, oh, you know, and by the way, the, the federal government has this program called the Networks of Centers of Excellence, which is meant to. bring, bring together the best and brightest in a specific area to, to really help have Canada lead you know, globally in that particular field. And, know, there’s been these networks and anything from, you know, studying the ocean and water quality to space and astronomy and finance and commerce and, you know, so I thought that was a good idea and I said, sure, absolutely.
You know, let me know any way I can help. To get this application together and that’s when there was kind of this pause and, know, I knew what was coming. It was, oh well. We want you to lead it. And you know, 15 years ago I was still relatively junior faculty member and so I was a bit hesitant, but you know, they talked me into it and that’s when know, I brought Bridgette on board.
Bridgette Murphy, who’s was my COO and managing director now, the acting CEO of of agewell, and we put the application together and it was a long process, but it was a fantastic process because, you know. We really saw how the whole age tech field in Canada really rallied behind this application.
And, and so we were successful after about a year and a half application process where we had to appear before panels with our federal government, et cetera. And then when we got it, we were all ecstatic. And you know, really that’s how it came about and just being, growing and getting better every day over the past 15 years now.
So it’s been a real pleasure to, to have been able to, to start it and to lead it for all this time.
Keren Etkin: That’s wonderful, and you just returned from a year in Spain, and so you have. Over the past 15 years and also having been to Europe for a full year. Now you have those sort of a global perspective. Do you think that Canada’s government is more forward thinking than other governments in terms of really supporting the AgeTech ecosystem?
Alex Mihailidis: So, so the answer actually is no. You know, we, we were funded 15 years ago among many other. Networks across different areas and, you know, we are funded one because the topic is important, but two, also we put together an extremely strong application. Unfortunately the government stopped the funding about a year ago to this program just out of the blue. and has not really been supportive moving forward except with some smaller grants and you know, to really help us to continue to, to move age well forward. the main reason I say though, they, I don’t find ’em as supportive as other governments is. You know, they do not have funding programs specifically, you know, for aging or they talk a lot about the development of standards and the development of technology for use in long-term care, for example.
But again, there’s no money. Behind these things. And so, you know, this is one thing that AgeWell really has been trying hard to do, is really to talk with our policy makers. Really try to push the agenda with our, our federal governments, our provincial governments, our territorial governments, you know, even at the municipality level to, to really be putting more resource into you know, technology solutions.
But. Also just in terms of changing the overall care system for our, our older adults and, and their caregivers in general. So, know, when I was in Europe, I got to experience you know, what Spain is doing and some other countries and the Horizon Europe Funding Program, which is the largest funding program in the world.
And the, you know, they have a whole specific call around aging and disability. So I would say. Canada, you know, still is falling behind the rest of the world in terms of the support that we do for this particular work.
Keren Etkin: That is super interesting and. I guess somewhat counterintuitive when you look at just how many startups are coming out of Canada each and every year. It’s one of the largest ecosystems we have in AgeTech.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah.
Keren Etkin: so speaking of startups, you’ve been throughout the years supporting the startup ecosystem through various programs.
And the most recent thing that you launched was the AgeTech Innovation Studio. Can you share a little bit about that?
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, absolutely. So this was in partnership and through the generosity of the University of Toronto and specifically the faculty applied science and engineering. There. You know, they have provided new space for age well as we move into our new phase of life post federal government funding, and, you know, we needed really two things in this new space. we needed easy to access workspace for our startups and for our students and for our researchers. But the second thing we wanted to have was a, a demonstration of apartment essentially, where, you know, we don’t want people to go in there doing basic research. We already have a home lab at one of our partner hospitals, Toronto Rehab, where basic research is being done. But we wanted a space where things could be showcased. We wanted a space that is easily accessible by the public, so by older adults, caregivers, companies, funders, whoever really is interested in seeing you know, what is. Is brand new in terms of H Tech. And so that’s what we have. We’re, we’re right downtown.
We’re not on the university campus. you know, we’re right kind of in the heart of it all. Easily accessible by transit walkable so people can come see it. You know, we have ikea, for example, IKEA Canada came in and furnished a whole apartment. So, you know, so it actually looks like a real livable space end. It’s not one of those places that has a fake ceiling or a fake floor, whatever. It’s, it’s, it’s a real apartment. And so we’re really excited to be able to use this to offer to our startups and our partners and to whoever else wants to use it to, to demonstrate some of the great innovations that they’ve been working on.
Keren Etkin: That is awesome. So you have on one hand startups showcasing their products, and on the one hand you have people from the industry, from the engine aging industry coming to see what’s out there. Is is it like, do you have office hours? How does that work Actually.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, so what we’ll be starting to do soon is setting up monthly times when people come in and do public tours. And so we’ll be advertising this widely across our network and with our partners and then through other local you know, community ways of of getting the news out. And so we want to set up a specific time every month so that people know that this is when it’s happening.
And, you know, our hope is that every month we have something brand new in there that people can see, so that even if you’ve seen it once, it’s not like you don’t have to come back and see it again. At the same time though, we also then, you know, we’ll take private requests from people that wish to bring in a group or, you know, a specific tour or something like that.
So, so that’s all being set up right now through our, our office. And we’ll make sure that you know, you know exactly the details so you can share with your listenership as well in terms of how they can come in and check things out. you know. Amazing. We actually have people internationally coming.
We have a company from Singapore right now in Toronto that is there to see the innovation studio and, and to maybe try to recreate that space back in Singapore as well. So that’s been a, a, a nice outcome as well.
Keren Etkin: That is fantastic. And what is the process like for startups? Do they apply to become part of the innovation studio and how do you choose when you have so many startups wanting to showcase their solutions?
Alex Mihailidis: So that’s a great question. So we have a wonderful person in charge of the startup program in, in resident development, Michael Chrostowski tki. And so he works very closely with the startups and it’s, it’s not like a, a formal application process. I think it’s really just, you know, working with them to see what stage they’re at. You know, is this something that they can go ahead and put know, in, in the innovation studio itself and. More importantly, you know, what, what are they ready to show to the public? You know, and have they gone through that stage of protecting their intellectual property, et cetera. So, so that’s something that, you know, Michael works out with everyone on a case by case basis.
Yeah.
Keren Etkin: Interesting. I really can’t wait to, to see what startups are showcased, and I’m, I’m sure that it’ll be very well received by, by the public and by the, the industry as it sounds like it already is.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, so far we had our opening reception a couple months ago and you know, we had about 140 people come to the reception and constant tours going through the space and everyone was just commenting on great. It was, so we’re, we’re very happy with, with what we’ve done so far.
Keren Etkin: That’s amazing. And you already have multiple other avenues of working with startups and facilitating these cross sector collaborations. Can you elaborate on, on some of those, maybe some that are. Open to applications right now.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, so we have always been funding research and startup companies in some way. We don’t have any open calls right now as we continue to transition to the new phase of, of Age Well, and, and our funding. however, one of the principle we’ve always held in anything that we funded is that it must be, you know, multidisciplinary, it must not just focus on the technology development itself, but in fact it needs to really focus on three things. So the technology. Service delivery model and the practice and the policy aspects of it, because, you know, those are the three things you really need to have figured out in order to get something out there into the marketplace, into the hands of, of older adults. Right. You know, I can, I can build you the coolest robot possible, but if I don’t understand how I’m gonna get that robot into the. homes of older adults. If I don’t understand the, the regulatory aspects of, whether it’s Health Canada or the FDA or the equivalent around the world, then again that robot’s just gonna sit in the lab. And so that’s a model that we insist on and we put throughout all the programming with an age well even with our trainee program, where we fund PhD students and postdocs.
Keren Etkin: So I find it fascinating that you also work with academics to sort of help bring academic research and commercialize it and. Sort of help it become a product that reaches people, consumers do, can you think of examples off the top of your head of specific technologies that emerged like this?
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah absolutely. I, I think there, there’s been several examples of that. So, you know, one of our early on successes was Braze mobility. This is, or sensors that turn any our wheelchair into a smart wheelchair. And that started by one of our postdoctoral fellows that we funded. And so working with her and, and helping her move things forward, we help her to establish Braze mobility and, and that company’s doing well and, has sales and, and is continuing to move on.
And, and the founder Dr. Pooja Viswanathan. Actually has now returned to academia as a professor and still running the company. So, you know, she returned to academia just ’cause again, she wants to reengage in the resource side of age tech as well. You now that she’s had her stint of more than 10 years of working on the business side.
So, you know, that’s a good example there. We have company called nightingale.ai. is doing home-based sensing, and that is being developed by a former PhD student along with a professor in the faculty of nursing right now at the University of Toronto, Charlene Chu. so again, that is taking their academic work and, and moving it towards a startup.
So, know, it’s, it’s been fascinating to see how interested a lot of faculty members ha are in developing startups. It’s been even more wonderful to see how many of our trainees are interested in going on to do their startups. And I would say a lot of our, our startup companies are in fact coming out of trainees work.
You know, they’re, they’re finishing their PhDs. They’re. Perhaps realizing they don’t want to be an academic in the true sense. And so they’re, they’re moving things forward with their research into, to, into commercial products. So, you know, I like to think a lot of that is because of the support that AgeWell has provided.
Not just cash support, but all the training we provide. The, the support from Michael, who I mentioned earlier and. And, and other mentors that we have in place within the network. So, you know, just one quick example. We, we have a chief entrepreneur. For AgeWell, the AgeWell network. And that’s someone named Michael Tamlin. Michael Tam’s history is, he invented the Kobo e-reader which is you know, the, the main rival with the Kindle. And he’s still the president, CEO of Ra Rakuten cap Kobo right now. So, you know, he is an entrepreneur at heart and he dedicates and volunteers so much of his time to, to help our students and our faculty members to move things forward.
So with mentorship like that you know, people are really gaining invaluable experience.
Keren Etkin: That is wonderful. Do you have. Any advice for people in academia who have research, who have ideas and that they wanna commercialize, but they’re not sure if entrepreneurship is for them? Because it is. It is taking a huge career risk to leave your position in academia and to start a startup. And like you never know if it’s gonna succeed or not.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah that’s a great question, Karen. You know, I, I am one of those academics who do not want to be an entrepreneur. You know, just because of things that you said, but, the end of the day, if they want to really take that chance and, and take that leap, they need to make sure they have something that people actually want. And, and that’s, you know, one of the biggest mistakes that we always see that people move forward with a product without doing the right amount of consultation, without, discussing things with their potential clientele. Just to make sure they got it right and, you know, that’s what AgeWell is here to do.
We can provide that connection. You know, we have a community of over 5,000 older adults and caregivers, across Canada that are all interested in providing that type of input. And so, we, you know, really try to get involved as others we can to help, you know, a professor or a student to formulate, what their idea is and to make sure it actually is hitting the mark before they take that leap and move things forward.
Keren Etkin: Is there a, a specific methodology that you’ve developed throughout the years to doing, to going through this process? Because I think it’s, it is a crucial step that sometimes people forget.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, I don’t know if we came up with a specific methodology as opposed to drawing upon well-known ways of, of, of, of going through the entrepreneurship program. we make sure that we, we have all of our people take a very holistic approach. Again, looking not just at the technology, but the service delivery and the policy practice. we make sure that they are talking with older people and caregivers or whoever they’re developing technology for very early and often, not just as an afterthought or you know, or tokenism that, you know, they truly are part of the team in some way. And then we really do push the whole mantra of entrepreneurship of, you know, fail fast and fail often if you, if you need to.
And, you know, don’t be afraid just to get some ideas out there in front of people to take a look. And again, that’s what we’re hoping the innovation studio will also help people to do is, is to get something out there, put it in front of people, have people come, play around with it and see what needs to be changed moving forward.
Keren Etkin: Will it be possible for the founders or product developers to be in the studio when people are using their products to sort of see how it goes?
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, no, absolutely. They can be there. Sometimes though it’s better if they’re not there because obviously we don’t want them to bias the clients. So, you know, we can have students or people from our team, you know, collect this information on their behalf. so, it kind of, so it all kind of depends on the situation.
So throughout the past 15 years. What have you seen change in the a tech ecosystem? I mean obviously we have many more startups today, but do you also get a sense that consumers and organizations in aging are more open to adopting these technologies?
Keren Etkin: Like you said, people are signing up to, to come to the innovation studio.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah. I think the biggest change is you know, AgeTech is, is cool now, you know, people and students wanna get involved in projects and, and these are students who, for example, have backgrounds in degrees in computer science or theoretical mathematics and things like that. You know, they want to. Apply their skills to AgeTech, which, you know, when I started off 20, 25 years ago you know, that wasn’t really the situation. Know, the, the interest in the academic world in AgeTech has significantly grown. You know, I remember giving my first presentation at a conference probably about 24 years ago, and it was on, you know, using smart home systems to support older adults with dementia.
And the first question I got asked is, why are you doing this? Like, is there, what’s the point? Right. Like they’re gonna end up in a home, they’re gonna end up in a with a caregiver. now you know, we have. Many conferences just on AgeTech, which is fantastic to see. You know, yes. And, and people wanna adopt these technologies.
They wanna use them, they wanna buy them, they want to, they want them available. But the, you know, I think we still need some work on, on how to do that. Right? And you know, some of these technologies are still very expensive, so how do we drive those costs down? Funding for these types of technologies still not readily available through you. Typical programs that would cover, you know, most of the costs of your quote unquote, you know, classic assistive technologies. And so there’s still a lot of work to be done by, by all of us in this field I think around the world to, to continue to open up those, those pathways and avenues that people can actually now get these things in their hands, in their homes.
Keren Etkin: Absolutely, and I think driving the costs down. Is possibly one of the like top five things that need to happen for widespread adoption because a lot of the devices, I mean especially, especially devices, if there’s hardware involved, they can cost hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars per unit.
So for consumers, for most consumers, it’s not. Viable. I’m wondering when you meet these young students that are coming from computer science and mathematics and don’t have a background in aging, and they’re suddenly realizing that AgeTech is cool and that it is a, it is a big market. If they wanna start a company, they should definitely look into it.
Are there any specific challenge areas that you refer them to? I.
Alex Mihailidis: No, I, I try to keep it, you know, personally, when, when students come to me, I try to keep it as open as possible at first. And, you know, the first thing I like to understand is what is their personal experience with aging? ’cause everyone has, you know, a, a grandparent, an older parent or, or someone in their lives that they have a story from.
And so I try to understand. You what those stories are, what their personal interests are and then really try to go from there. And once I’ve identified that, then I try to open them up a little bit to talking to more older adults. You know, I. I, I’ve had a practice for a long time as well that, you know, sometimes I’ll have my, my students when they first start volunteering a long-term care home, or in a nursing facility just so they understand the daily problems that you know, caregivers and the care staff there and older adults themselves face.
So I really want them to, to, you know, absorb as much as possible and build upon their personal story, which, you know, is, is a, a very small sample size, obviously, to understand what these issues are. From there then, you know, we really try to narrow things down in terms of, you know, what their project’s gonna be.
And again, trying to solve one thing and, and solve that one thing that that’s a real world problem. And, you know. It, it, it’s a, it’s a problem sometimes, but it’s also fantastic that students come and, you know, they’re, they’re excited about the air. They wanna try to solve everything. They want to apply all their skill sets as much as possible.
And as I said, I love seeing that, that enthusiasm. But it’s also then working with them to, you know, try to understand, you know, what are you solving? What, what does, what does your person need from, from what you’re developing.
Keren Etkin: That is awesome. And, and volunteering in a, in a long-term care setting definitely, I think is a, is an experience that, that will stick with people. ’cause like it’s, it’s very different reading about the challenges of aging and it. Then like seeing it with your own eyes and seeing just how, you know, the people who work in this industry are dedicated but also stretched very, very thin.
And how, just how much technology is needed in these spaces. So it’s in.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, exactly.
Keren Etkin: It’s amazing. And the last thing that you, that you launched just, I just saw you announce it on your LinkedIn just a couple of, a couple of weeks ago, was the Age Tech Futures Institute. So, first of all, congratulations and can you tell us a little bit more about that one?
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, so, you know, this is something that myself and colleagues around the world have been talking, thinking about for a long, long time. You know, developing an independent think tank for this area. Not to replicate or replace existing networks that are out there like AgeWell and others, but to really compliment.
And finally, when I you know, quote unquote retired from being scientific director of AgeWell and became the founding scientific director of AgeWell, I took this as an opportunity to finally move this initiative forward. And so I reached out to. know, some of the top 10 to 12, you know, individuals and colleagues that I’ve worked with in some capacity around the world. I explained to ’em what the idea was and, and the, the main idea here is. A true independent think tank. So the, the initial group of fellows that I wanted to bring on would not be there representing their organization, not representing their institution, not representing any specific government, but themselves as leaders and experts in the area of age tech so that we can get around a table, you know, as often as possible, talk about the issues that are currently happening in age tech that we’re seeing. That our partners are telling us about. And then for us to be able to have some kind of influence. And that influence may be through policy documents, white papers, workshops that will hold presentations or just simple dissemination through, you know, media forms like, like your podcasts. And again, to ha to, to really make it a safe place for all of us to speak our minds in terms of what needs to be done in this particular area. End. Maybe use a bit of a Canadian analogy where it snows a lot here of just plowing the road for those you know, that are up and coming right to make things easier than it was for us 20 years ago. And, and so, you know, the details are still being worked out. The first in-person meeting of the group of 10 fellows will be at the International Society of Gerontechnology Conference in March in Vancouver 2026. And so expect out of there some some new outcomes and some, new ideas coming out of this group. So, stay tuned.
Keren Etkin: I, I will say too, and it sounds like a wonderful and much needed initiative and yeah, we should definitely like have another conversation in future episode about the key takeaways from bringing together all these brilliant minds.
Alex Mihailidis: Absolutely. That’d be wonderful
Keren Etkin: So that was actually my last question. Is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you would like to add?
Any call to action to our audience?
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah. You know, I think the, the main call to action is you know, continue to, to make AgeTech cool, right? And, and it’s something that is needed. And, you know, there, there’s so much evidence out there now by all of the work that’s being done around the world on, on the, the impact that technology can have on the lives of older adults and their caregivers, and. you know, so let’s continue to push the policy makers. Let’s continue to push the companies that are out there to, to take on the, these types of projects and, and let’s make AgeTech, you know, mainstream. Let’s make it as simple as going to. Your local electronic shop and buying, you know, the latest and greatest gadget out there.
And if we continue to do that and push as a community all work together I hope within, three to five years from now, you know, we’re gonna see robots readily available and at costs that are that are accessible by as many people as possible.
Keren Etkin: Hear hear, I’m sure we’ll get there. I have no doubt in my mind yeah. Hopefully within three to five years, I, I am, I’m, I’m ready for this future by 2030. Affordable home butler robots for everyone.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah, exactly.
Keren Etkin: Awesome. Well, Alex, thank you so much for joining me on the show today and for all the work that you do to not only push AgeTech Forward, but like you said, make AgeTech cool.
Alex Mihailidis: Yeah. Great. Thank you, Karen.
Keren Etkin: Thank you.