Globally, the human population is rapidly aging, but healthspan — the period of life free from disease and disability— has not increased. The gap between lifespan and healthspan has complex societal and economic implications. Under the leadership of the Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – a UBC President’s Excellence Chair, the interdisciplinary Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging (ELCHA) has the broad goal of defining the pathways through which individuals, communities, health systems, and whole societies can deliver a future with healthy, optimized aging for all.
The ELCHA is a UBC Senate-approved Category 1 research Centre that brings together experts from different fields of research including medicine, and the social, natural and applied sciences, to investigate aging in a holistic way. Key to the program is a life course approach that takes aging as the starting point and looks both backward and forward in the life journey, seeking the greatest opportunities to intervene.
Building on the UBC’s scientific excellence and deep commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship, the Centre will have a transformational impact and provide advances that will transcend disease modalities. Ultimately, the hope is that the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging will help people in British Columbia and abroad remain healthy longer into their later years, which will have tremendous benefit to health systems, communities and society.
Milestones
- March 7, 2018: UBC announced the program
- March 24, 2022: UBC announced the chair
- May 16, 2023: The Centre became an official Faculty of Medicine- approved research centre
- March 28, 2025: The ECLHA became UBC’s first-ever Category 1 research centre
Advisory Council
The International Scientific Advisory Council (ISAC) is supporting the successful launch and development of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, while ensuring the centre remains true to Dr. Leong’s vision.