Pictured above: 2025 Emerging Researcher Wei-Lin Chen with Margaret Milne - GM interRAI Services and Dr Gary Cheung - Chair interRAI Research Network.

A huge thanks to everyone who joined both online and in-person for this year’s interRAI Research Network Knowledge Exchange. The theme for this year’s conference was Mental Health and Wellbeing, with 15 presenters using interRAI data to share insights into topics ranging from aged care medication management to machine learning’s role in dementia risk identification. We also celebrated a huge milestone: 20 years since interRAI assessments were first piloted in New Zealand.

Each year, an Emerging Researcher Award is presented to a young researcher who utilises interRAI data in their work. This year’s recipient, Wei-Lin Chen from Auckland University of Technology (AUT), explored the effects of aged residential care subsidies in his presentation ‘Unpacking Health Trajectories in Aged Care: The Role of Initial Health and Financial Pressure’. His research uses interRAI LTCF assessment data and Ministry of Social Development (MSD) data to explore how residents’ initial health status and financial circumstances affect their health trajectories.

The 5th interRAI Knowledge Exchange was held on 10 February 2025 at 69 Tory St, Te Aro, Wellington. You can watch recordings of the presentations below or by clicking here.