IMPACT Collaboratory multiple principal investigator Vince Mor, PhD, and Brown University’s Center for Long-Term Care Quality & Innovation are partnering with the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, Exponent, and other research partners in a powerful new initiative, funded by the National Institute on Aging, which enables public health surveillance of COVID-19 and other potential public health threats facing nursing homes.

The research partners are leveraging their capabilities to establish the Long Term Care Data Cooperative, which uses nursing home residents’ electronic medical records and associated data to create comprehensive resident electronic health records to help providers monitor their residents’ needs and outcomes. Additionally, the health records system will support public health reporting as well as allow researchers to generate real-world evidence on different treatments and care practices for the elderly and individuals with disabilities in nursing homes.

Mor and his colleagues at Brown University are working with, Exponent, an interdisciplinary and scientific consulting company, electronic health records (EHR) software firm MatrixCare, the AHCA to assemble the largest and most comprehensive health records database from geographically and structurally diverse nursing homes and residents.

This multi-year initiative will continue to characterize and monitor the immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 and its vaccines among residents and contribute to better preparedness for future public health threats.