Dr. Marianne Saragosa

• 2024–present; Assistant Professor (status), Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto
• 2024–present; Embedded Nurse Scientist, Science of Care Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto
• 2023–present; Affiliate Homecare Scientist, Research and Innovation, VHA Home HealthCare, Toronto
• 2006–present; Registered Nurse, College of Nurses of Ontario, Toronto

• Postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Michelle Nelson, Bridgepoint Research Collaboratory, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto; 2022–2024
• Master of Nursing, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson University), Toronto; 2006–2008
• BSc in Nursing, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson University), Toronto; 2002–2006

• 2025 – SSHRC Institutional Research Grant funding (SIG), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto
• 2023–2025 – Postdoctoral Award, Alzheimer Society of Canada, Alzheimer Society Research Program
• 2023 – Travel Award – Institute Community Support, Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)
• 2022 – RTC Travel Award, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto
• 2021–2022 – CIHR Health System Impact Fellow, Trainee, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• 2021 – Doctoral Completion Award, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto
• 2020 – VHA Home HealthCare Graduate Student Award, VHA Home HealthCare, Toronto
• 2019 – Dalla Lana Scholarship, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto
• 2018 – Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto

Co-developing a person-centred navigation tool for enhanced support  

In Canada, the number of people living with dementia is rising, placing greater demands on health care systems and unpaid caregivers—the backbone of dementia care. While early detection can reduce caregiver stress and delay institutionalization, individuals with dementia require increasing support as the disease progresses. 

Current dementia clinical care pathways are largely clinician-facing, focused on diagnosis and treatment, with limited engagement of persons with dementia and caregivers in their design or use. This gap is concerning, as families continue to struggle with system navigation, anticipatory planning and accessing timely information and support.

To our knowledge, no person-centred, patient-facing dementia navigator mobile application currently exists in Canada. Such an eHealth intervention could deliver tailored health information, resources, and services, personalized to users’ needs, local community assets and disease stage.

This project, funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant, aims to develop and evaluate a Dementia Navigator Mobile tool. The project includes system and service mapping, engaging key informants and Experience Groups to create journey maps and personas and co-design workshops to ensure that persons with dementia and caregivers are central to the tool’s development.

The resulting application will be evaluated in real-world settings, focusing on technology acceptability, usability and user experience. By involving people directly affected at every stage—idea generation, design, and piloting—the Dementia Navigator Mobile tool aims to provide meaningful, practical support across the dementia journey and enhance interactions with Canada’s health and social care systems.

Understanding community belonging in a horizontal naturally occurring retirement community (NORC)  

NORCs are considered communities that have become home to a high density of older adults over time. While NORCs can be horizontal (i.e., housing dispersed over a defined geographical area), the vertical apartment variety has been identified and receives more attention in the literature. As a result, much of the NORC literature focuses on leveraging vertical NORC sites to provide a range of health and social support and services, including opportunities for community engagement. 

Our research takes a unique perspective by focusing on a better understanding of community belonging in a horizontal NORC spread across blocks. This unique approach may identify novel ways of alleviating social isolation and loneliness among older adults. This project aims to explore the environmental elements contributing to a sense of community belonging for older residents of a horizontal NORC formed by a cluster of six high- and low-rise buildings in Toronto. 

Using Photovoice and evaluative methods, we seek to answer the following research questions:

1. What elements within the built environment help (or hinder) individual and community efforts to create a sense of community belonging among horizontal NORC older residents?
    
2. How do older adults describe their sense of community belonging?
    
3. What is the impact of using the Photovoice exhibit as a community mobilization tool for helping to develop a horizontal NORC?

We are always looking for motivated researchers to join our team.

Our research group is part of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation within the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, which requires that a supervisor be identified before admission to the graduate program.

Graduate students interested in doing a Health Systems Research PhD or a Master of Science in the group should first contact Marianne Saragosa directly.