Health & aging
Every Canadian — every citizen of the world — deserves to be healthy and well. We’re on it.
Growth, spending, natural disasters and economic crises have a powerful effect on the health of a nation’s population. Since 2011, the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences has been home to the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, which tracks what societal change means to quality of life for everyday Canadians.
Food and water safety in your pocket
“I think nanotechnology will deliver new tools and revolutionize our health-care system by empowering people to self-diagnose and monitor their own health,” says Shirley Tang, a professor of chemistry in the Faculty of Science and member of WIN. Her research team is close to commercializing patented nanotechnology that could also transform food and environmental safety. A handheld device, small enough to slip in a pocket or backpack and powerful enough to allow health officials, inspectors or even travellers to quickly determine the safety of drinking water or food, aims to give public health back to the people.
Where math meets medicine
Better algorithms are leading to better surgical outcomes for children at risk of skull and facial deformities due to a condition called craniosynostosis. A team including Ricardo Fukasawa and Jochen Koenemann, professors of combinatorics and optimization in the Faculty of Mathematics, and PhD student André Linhares work with surgeons at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, using mathematical models to guide surgical incisions. The goals are better outcomes and reduced surgery times for young patients and better training for surgeons new to the procedure.
Life in space for life on Earth
If you want insight into the aging process, become an astronaut, like Chris Hadfield, adjunct professor of aviation, cross-appointed to the Faculties of Applied Health Sciences, Environment and Science. Months of weightlessness in space accelerate the changes that people normally experience as they age: stiffer arteries, weaker muscles, bone loss and compromises to the nervous system. Research collaborations between experts in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging, NASA and Canadian Space Agency astronauts are expanding the horizons for healthy aging.
By The Numbers
- Canada’s only English-language School of Optometry and Vision Science
- Innovative hub for aging research through the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging
- World’s first-ever Department of Kinesiology
- Canada’s newest School of Pharmacy and only co-op pharmacy program in Canada
Our goal as an institution is to improve lives — for individuals and entire populations. From tobacco policy to healthy aging, better body mechanics to cutting-edge medical diagnostic tools, our role in Canadian health care is distinct and vital.
Find out more
- Food safety: Waterloo nanotech device tests for bacteria
- Using math models to make the best incisions in skull surgery
- Astronauts take Waterloo research into orbit
- Research at Waterloo
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