Dr. Paula Rochon
Geriatrician and Senior Scientist, Women’s College Hospital and Founding Director, Women’s Age Lab, Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
geriatrics, older women's health and healthcare, aging in place, congregate care, loneliness, gendered agism, poverty and older women, socio-economic politics for older women
Media
When it comes to long-term care, the personal is political
Why do most ‘long-haul’ COVID-19 sufferers seem to be women? The case for more sex-inclusive research
To help combat COVID-19, we need better data to benefit all
It’s not the same old story: Canada’s aging population is on the rise, but we don’t have the resources to match
Bridging the gender health divide
Biography
Dr. Paula Rochon is a geriatrician and senior scientist at Women’s College Hospital, and the Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is the inaugural RTOERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at UofT. Rochon’s research focuses on understanding the unique needs of older adults, particularly older women, and promotes their health and wellness. She has contributed to our understanding of aging and its impact both on individual patients and the healthcare system. These contributions include highlighting the need to consider sex, gender and age in research so that results are more relevant to older women and men and tailoring prescribing strategies to reduce adverse drug events. Rochon has a strong record of federal funding and has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She held the role of the Vice President of Research at Women’s College Hospital for 12 years, Vice-Chair of the CIHR Institute of Aging Advisory Board and has received research distinctions, including being elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and being awarded the Eaton Clinical Researcher of the Year Award for 2020 from the University of Toronto. In January of 2020, she was invited to participate on an Advisory Group to support the Ministry of Long-Term Care in developing a long-term care staffing study; in April 2020 she was invited to join a national Task Group on COVID-19 in long-term care homes and invited to be a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, where she chairs the Congregate Care Setting Working group for the provincial Science Advisory Table. Rochon is committed to the development of trainees and new investigators in aging research and making valuable contributions to our future understanding of aging. They have gone on to win prestigious awards in research, present across Canada and publish in peer-reviewed academic journals, sharing key learnings and important findings from their research projects.