A Multidisciplinary Approach to Aging
An interview with Dr. Judes Poirier, Director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging
Hannah Hoag, MSc
Contributing Author,
Geriatrics & Aging.
What is the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging? "It's an opportunity", explains Dr. Judes Poirier, current director of the MCSA. The MCSA is a non-academic department affiliated with McGill University that draws scientists and professors out of their specific academic departments and into a group formed around their common interest: the biology of aging. Since studying aging from a solitary point of view (from within an insular academic department) prohibits a comprehensive understanding of this multifarious process, the MCSA has created an infrastructure which allows its members a multidisciplinary approach to the aging process.
The MCSA arose from a mandate delivered by the Dean of Medicine of McGill University in 1985 to establish a gerontology centre that would allow McGill to remain competitive with American Schools. At that time, there were few gerontology programs in Canada. Those that did exist dealt primarily with the social or psychological aspects of aging; the biochemical and biomedical aspects of aging remained a largely untouched field.
