Author: Erin Luers

Notice of Intent: IMPACT Collaboratory plans to publish 2 new Requests for Applications on January 10, 2022.

Posted on by Erin Luers

We are pleased to announce that the IMPACT Collaboratory plans to publish two Requests for Applications (RFA) on January 10, 2022. Stay tuned for more details.

Career Development Award (CDA) Program

  • CDA RFA Cycle 3
  • $100k per year in direct costs for 2 years
  • Goal: Mentored training grant for early-stage investigators to gain skills needed to conduct ePCTs for dementia care
  • Informational Webinar: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at 2pm ET. Registration closed.
  • Learn more about CDA awardees

Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars Program

  • HCS Scholars RFA Cycle 2
  • $120k in direct costs for 1 year
  • Goal: Embed scholars in health care systems to strengthen research partnerships to conduct ePCTs to improve dementia care
  • Informational Webinar: Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 1:15pm ET. Registration closed.
  • Learn more about HCS Scholar awardees

Elizabeth Ciemins, PhD, MPH, MA

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AMGA

Implementation of MIND at Home Program in Primary Care for People Living with Dementia

Health Care Systems

  • McFarland Clinic
  • CommonSpirit

Study Snapshot

Dr. Ciemins is a health services research scientist and vice president of Research and Analytics at the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). In her role, she focuses on data-driven population health improvement through comparative and predictive clinical analytics. Prior to AMGA, she served for 10 years as director of the Center for Clinical Translational Research at Billings Clinic where her research focused on improving the quality of care and care transitions across a large, geographically disperse service area in the areas of diabetes, hypertension, palliative care, and health IT. Dr. Ciemins’ areas of research interest include chronic disease management, health information and telehealth technology, palliative care, childhood and adult obesity, care transitions, rural health, mental health, and complexity science approaches to behavior change in health care. Dr. Ciemins holds a PhD in Health Services and Policy Analysis from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPH in Population/Family Health, and MA in African Studies from University of California Los Angeles.

RATIONALE:  People living with dementia (PLWD) represent some of the highest-need and highest-cost individuals living in the community and primary care plays a pivotal in the detection, diagnosis, and delivery of services for this vulnerable patient group. Despite the availability of a range of evidence-based dementia and symptom management approaches, few American PLWD receive adequate care; embedding effective evidence-based interventions and dementia care best practices into primary care settings is needed, but not yet widely done.

OBJECTIVE: To embed and test the feasibility of a novel best practice-based approach, MIND at Home, within primary care to enhance and elevate the role of existing primary care staff to Memory Care Coordinators (MCCs), increase primary care access to interdisciplinary collaborative care, and systematically combine the benefits of clinic-based services with home-based assessment to support family-centered care planning and implementation for PLWD and their care partners.

SETTING: Three primary care clinics in two geographically and demographically diverse integrated health systems.

POPULATION: Community-residing primary care patients with an Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) diagnosis who have at least one caregiver/care partner.

INTERVENTION: MIND at Home is a comprehensive care coordination program that takes an interdisciplinary, collaborative care approach by systematically assessing and addressing a wide range of dementia-care related needs of both PLWD and their care partners that place both at increased risk for poor outcomes. MIND brings a home-based component to what is often exclusively clinic-based care delivery while providing ongoing education designed to build primary care team dementia management capacity through regular interdisciplinary collaboratives with dementia experts.

OUTCOMES: The primary clinical outcome is hospital transfers including admissions, ED visits, and observation stays. Secondary outcomes include overall number of medications, number of anti-psychotic medications, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine. EHR-based outcomes will be collected pre-, during-, and post-intervention for a total of 7 months.

IMPACT: Embedding a collaborative, best-practice based approach, such as MIND at Home, into primary care is a potentially powerful strategy to organize care, improve quality, reduce costs, and maximize benefit for PLWD.

Leah Hanson, PhD

Posted on by Erin Luers

HealthPartners Institute

Mindfulness-Based Dementia Care Partner Program to Reduce Depressive Symptoms

Health Care Systems

  • HealthPartners
  • Sutter Health
  • University of Michigan – Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

Study Snapshot

Dr. Hanson is a senior research investigator and senior director of research at HealthPartners Neuroscience Center, HealthPartners Institute and co-director of research at the HealthPartners Center for Memory & Aging. For over 15 years, her research has focused on the development of novel therapeutic delivery methods for the treatment and prevention of neurologic diseases, especially those that impact older adults such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. In 2010, she initiated the Minnesota Memory Project, a longitudinal cohort study of memory changes in adults and associated risk and protective factors, and she continues to serve as the principal investigator. Her experience includes recruitment for clinical research and trials in dementia via electronic medical record and healthcare claims data, conducting trials of non-medication interventions including education and support for patients and caregivers, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and aromatherapy.

RATIONALE: While caregiving and being a care partner to a person living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia (PLWD) can be rewarding, care partners often feel high levels of stress and burden, have low mood, and poor health.

OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of implementing a mindfulness program to reduce stress and symptoms of depression in care partners. We will pilot test a new way to collect real-world outcomes on care partners through an administrative set of data collected by a community non-profit organization that trains the program instructors.

SETTING: Three memory care clinics located in Minnesota, Michigan, and California.

POPULATION: Approximately 120 care partners of PLWD.

INTERVENTION: The intervention is an adaptation of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for care partners of PLWD called Mindfulness Based Dementia Care (MBDC). Developed by the Presence Care Project (www.presencecareproject.com), a community-based non-profit organization, MBDC offers a bridge between mindfulness practice and the dementia care exchange.

OUTCOMES: The primary clinical outcome is symptoms of depression, and the secondary clinical outcome is care partner burden. Implementation outcomes will measure the feasibility of implementation including the rate of program registration and completion, number of sessions attended, acceptability of virtual instruction, and completeness of data collection.

IMPACT: Findings from this pilot study will guide the design a large real-world trial to test the potential benefits of MBDC.  Mindfulness has the potential to reduce stress and burden in care partners, reduce symptoms of depression, and ultimately improve overall health.

Maggie Ramirez, PhD, MS, MS

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University of Washington

Virtual Training for Latino Caregivers to Manage Symptoms of Dementia

Health Care Systems

  • UW Medicine
  • WWAMI Region Practice and Research Network

Study Snapshot

Dr. Ramirez is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health, Department of Health Systems and Population Health. Dr. Ramirez is also an affiliate investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. She has an interdisciplinary background in learning health systems research, public health, and human-centered design. Her research focuses on how information and communication technology can be used to enhance the delivery of health interventions targeting populations impacted by disparities in health status and healthcare delivery. She currently leads research on a virtual intervention to support the health and well-being of Latinos who provide care to family members living with dementia. Dr. Ramirez lives and works on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle – the Duwamish People, past and present – and she honors with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

RATIONALE: Latinos are 1.5 times more likely to develop dementia compared to non-Latino White adults. Non-pharmacological interventions have been developed and tested to support caregivers of people living with dementia (PWLD), but they are limited by the persistent underrepresentation of Latinos. STAR-VTF is a virtual adaptation of an efficacious intervention that teaches caregivers skills to reduce behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study are to 1) integrate Latino cultural values, beliefs, concerns, and language preference into STAR-VTF and 2) pilot test the adapted content among Latino care partners.

SETTING: Washington State

POPULATION: Spanish- and English-speaking care partners of PLWD who self-identify as Hispanic/Latino/a/x.

INTERVENTION: For 6-8 weeks, care partners in the STAR-VTF intervention complete weekly online training modules asynchronously, have weekly phone calls with a coach (e.g., social worker), and receive ongoing support from the coach via secure email messages. This study focuses on pilot testing the adapted asynchronous, online training modules component of the intervention.

OUTCOMES: The primary outcome is the Revised Memory and Problem Behavior Checklist, which measures the frequency of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and the impact these symptoms have on care partners.

IMPACT: This pilot study will enable us to perform and refine adaptations of the STAR-VTF intervention for Latino care partners. The long-term goal is to accelerate wide adoption of STAR-VTF in healthcare systems to improve the quality and outcomes of care for Latino PLWD and their care partners.

New Funding Opportunity: Request for Applications for IMPACT Demonstration Project Program

Posted on by Erin Luers

The IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to announce a Request for Applications (RFA) for the second cycle of the Demonstration Project Program.

IMPACT will fund up to two Demonstration Projects (maximum duration 24 months) designed as full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCT) (based on the NIH Stage Model) that test, measure and evaluate the effect of a non-pharmacological care delivery intervention program in a health care system for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and their care partners.  The goal of the Demonstration Project is to generate evidence on effective care delivery practices that can be expanded and/or implemented in other systems.

Under this mechanism, interventions must be linked to the needs of the health care system.  Suitable interventions typically encompass relatively simple system changes or direct patient outreach, or successfully piloted programs ready for testing at scale. Demonstration Projects will allow health care systems and investigators to gain real-world experience integrating pragmatic non-pharmacological interventions into usual clinical workflow and health care delivery practices in a controlled manner that provides clear information on the impact of the intervention program.

The IMPACT Collaboratory will only fund Demonstration Project applications that include a clinical trial as defined by the National Institutes of Health.  Preference will be given to applications that address dementia care for populations historically marginalized or underrepresented in clinical trials and those that promote health equity.

It is anticipated that Demonstration Project awards will be for up to $500,000 in direct costs for a maximum of 24-months and will be non-renewable.

Learn more about the Demonstration Projects Program here.

Informational Webinar

An optional informational webinar will be hosted to provide investigators with an overview of application details and an opportunity to ask questions. Pre-registration is required using the link below.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 1:00 pm ET: Registration closed.

Letters of Intent (LOI) by Email – Required
Interested applicants are required to submit an LOI. LOIs are accepted on a rolling basis through:

October 29, 2021 @ 5pm ET

Full Applications Due – By invitation only

Applicants selected for further consideration will be invited to submit a full application due:

January 14, 2022 @ 5pm ET

Read the full RFA here. Learn more about our previous Demonstration Project Awardees here.

If you have any questions regarding this funding opportunity, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions or email IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu.

Please help to publicize this IMPACT funding opportunity and encourage investigators and colleagues to apply.

Notice of Intent (NOI) to Publish a New Funding Opportunity for the IMPACT Demonstration Project Program

Posted on by Erin Luers

Demonstration Project Grants Cycle 2

We are pleased to announce that the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory plans to publish a Request for Applications (RFA) for Demonstration Project Grants on October 4, 2021.  Letters of Intent are required and due no later than October 29, 2021.

IMPACT will fund Demonstration Projects (maximum duration 24 months) designed as full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCT) (based on the NIH Stage Model) that test, measure and evaluate the effect of a care delivery intervention program in a health care system for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and their care partners.

The intervention will typically encompass relatively simple system changes or direct patient outreach, or successfully piloted programs ready for testing at scale. Demonstration Projects will allow health care systems and investigators to gain real-world experience integrating pragmatic non-pharmacologic interventions into usual clinical workflow and health care delivery practices in a controlled manner that provides clear information on the impact of the intervention program.  Under this mechanism, interventions must be linked to the needs of a health care system.

The goal of the Demonstration Project is to generate evidence on effective care delivery practices that can be expanded and/or implemented in other systems. The IMPACT Collaboratory will give preference to applications that address dementia care for populations historically marginalized or underrepresented in clinical trials and those that promote health equity. It is anticipated that Demonstration Projects will be funded for up to $500,000 in direct costs for a maximum of 24-months.

Stay tuned for updates regarding the release of the RFA, an informational webinar and application deadline. Visit IMPACTcollaboratory.org to learn more about the Demonstration Projects Grants Program and currently awarded grants. If you have questions related to this funding opportunity, please contact IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu.

NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Request for Applications for the Pilot Grants Program Cycle 3B

Posted on by Erin Luers

Pilot Grant Program – Cycle 3B

The IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to announce a Request for Applications for the Pilot Grants Program Cycle 3B.

In this cycle, the IMPACT Collaboratory will fund up to five one-year awards for pilot pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) that test non-pharmacological interventions embedded in health care system(s) for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and their care partners. Under this mechanism, interventions must be linked to the needs of a health care system (HCS). For more information, please see our Pilot Grants Program page.

The IMPACT Collaboratory will consider all applications for pilot ePCTs that evaluate non-pharmacological interventions to improve the care of people living with AD/ADRD and their care partners. However, this grant cycle will prioritize applications for interventions in these populations that aim to:

  • Improve care through behavioral economics “nudge” interventions;
  • Reduce inequities in health care;
  • Reduce potentially inappropriate medications through de-prescribing; or
  • Improve care in emergency departments.

The goal of the pilot studies is to generate the preliminary data necessary to design and conduct a future full-scale Stage IV effectiveness ePCT (based on the NIH Stage Model) funded through other grant mechanisms (NIH or other sources). Preference will be given to applications that address dementia care for populations traditionally marginalized or underrepresented in clinical trials and those that promote health equity.

All applications should make a convincing case that the pilot ePCT proposed can be scaled up to a full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness ePCT as the next step. It is anticipated that Pilot Studies will be funded for up to $175,000 in direct costs for a maximum of 12-months.

Informational Webinar
An optional informational webinar will be hosted to provide investigators with an overview of application details and an opportunity to ask questions. Pre-registration is required using the link below.
  • Tuesday, August 23, 2021 at 2:00 pm ET: Registration closed.

Letter of Intent (LOI) Due – Required

Interested applicants are required to submit an LOI. LOIs are accepted on a rolling basis through:
  • September 17, 2021 @ 5pm ET

Full Proposals Due – By invitation only

Applications selected for further consideration will be invited to submit a full proposal due:
  •  January 14, 2022 @ 5pm ET

Read the full RFA here. Learn more about our previous Pilot Grant Awardees here.

If you have any questions regarding this funding opportunity, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions or email IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu.