Award: Dr. Linda Lee named 2019 Joule Innovation grant recipient

Congratulations to adjunct professor and alumna Dr. Linda Lee, MClSc '10, on being named a 2019 Joule Innovation access to care grant recipient for her MINT Memory Clinics initiative.

Linda Lee MD, CCFP(COE), FCFP, MClSc has spent the past thirty years practicing family medicine in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario and caring for older adults living with dementia and in long term care.

Early in her career, Dr. Lee recognized gaps in how people living with dementia and other memory disorders were cared for. Together with her team, she developed the MINT Memory Clinic model, a fresh approach to timely, complete and compassionate memory care within primary care settings. As part of this model, she also developed a nationally accredited dementia care training program, which has enabled other primary care settings to establish MINT Memory Clinics.

Dr. Lee was awarded the 2009 Regional Family Physician of the Year by the Ontario College of Family Physicians for her leadership in helping improve the care of older adults with dementia and other memory disorders, and in 2014, she received the Ontario Minister's Medal Honouring Excellence in Health Quality and Safety. She was also the 2015 recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging Betty Havens Award for Knowledge Translation in Aging.

With the Joule Innovation grant, Dr. Lee and her team will:

  • Further develop and refine the digital technology processes that enable effective communication and collaborative partnerships between MINT Memory Clinics and specialists;
  • Support adaptation of the MINT Memory Clinic model to suit primary care settings in other provinces in preparation for national spread.

For more information on Dr. Lee and her memory clinic model, visit the Joule site.