June 24, 2026
IMPACT researchers including Career Development Awardees Natalie Douglas, Lisa Juckett, Andrew Kiselica, Rebecca Lassell, Erica Frechman, Tina Sadarangani, and Komal Patel Murali, and Latarsha Chisholm; and Training Core Leader Alexia Torke have published a methods-focused article offering practical guidance for early career researchers designing pragmatic clinical trials in dementia care.
The article brings together lessons learned from early career researchers in nursing, social work, neuropsychology, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology. The authors focus on four main ideas: engaging partners across roles and care levels; including representative participants; attending to organizational strain and readiness; and learning from adaptations.
The methods-focused article offers practical direction to advance pragmatic trials in dementia care and supports early career development. The authors cite examples from multiple fields to show how researchers can identify and use existing data, work with care teams and families to collect information in feasible ways, tailor methods to cultural and linguistic contexts, and remain flexible when studies need to adapt to real-world conditions.