Author: Sonya Sutton

IMPACT Collaboratory included in NIH 2022 progress report on dementia research

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released their 2022 Scientific Progress Report on Advancing Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias and included the IMPACT Collaboratory as a highlight of real word applications of dementia research.

The NIH is working toward the ambitious goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by 2025. The progress report features scientific advances and related efforts between April 2021 and early 2022 in areas including drug development, lifestyle interventions, biomarker research, and more. The report provides an overview of the meaningful progress researchers are making to address Alzheimer’s disease, which impacted more than 6 million Americans in 2022, and other dementias.

The IMPACT Collaboratory’s efforts to test interventions in real world settings was commended in the progress report, with special focus on the research conducted during COVID-19 to study the impact of the pandemic on nursing home residents. Members of the IMPACT Collaboratory received five supplement awards for intervention studies and three supplement awards to develop infrastructure systems to monitor the effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

Read the full report at this link.

IMPACT to host webinar to introduce the Long Term Care Data Cooperative

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The IMPACT Collaboratory will host a special webinar event featuring leaders from the Long-Term Care (LTC) Data Cooperative, who will provide an introduction and overview to this powerful new resource. The webinar will be December 7 from 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm EST and will feature IMPACT’s Vince Mor, PhD, David Dore, PharmD, PhD, from Exponent, and David Gifford, MD, MPH from the American Health Care Association (AHCA).  Participants will learn more about the Data Cooperative, its membership, how to join, and options for data access.

The LTC Data Cooperative is a nationwide effort funded by the National Institute on Aging, to assemble resident health records to improve treatment outcomes and be better prepared for public health events in the future. An outgrowth of work led by Vince Mor in response to COVID-19, this initiative brings together healthcare systems and data management resources to create the largest integrated database of detailed, normalized, electronic health record (EHR) data from nursing homes (NH) in the United States. The EHR data can also be linked to Medicare claims data.

The LTC Data Cooperative will:

  • Assist providers with health care operations, including care coordination, risk stratification and quality performance reporting.
  • Support public health monitoring for medical conditions and infections, including COVID-19.
  • Enable observational studies of the LTC population, ranging from comparative treatment effectiveness studies, to epidemiological studies of risk to pharmaco-epidemiological studies.
  • Facilitate provider and patient recruitment into clinical research studies, including stage 3 and 4 embedded pragmatic clinical trials.

The LTC Data Cooperative’s comprehensive data set will facilitate researchers’ ability to test the impact of treatments and other interventions intended to improve the lives of NH residents through observational studies and pragmatic clinical trials. This will enable researchers to generate real-world evidence on the effectiveness of different treatments and care practices for older adults, individuals with disabilities, and people living with dementia in nursing homes.

 

Zoom Info: https://hebrewseniorlife.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hBhIcSmSRKCdbbmxfmBLSQ

IMPACT Collaboratory announces Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars Funding Opportunity

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The IMPACT Collaboratory is happy to announce a Request for Applications for Cycle 3 of the Health Care Systems Scholars Program.

The Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars program offers researchers an opportunity to partner with healthcare systems to develop embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) focused on improving the care provided to people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners (CPs). The program funds researchers to partner with HCS (or organization) for 12 months to:

  • Develop relationships between the researcher and HCS staff at all levels, from direct care to leaders.
  • Learn about the HCS: about staff-identified needs for PLWD and CPs; about systems, workflow, and data; and about how HCS implement programs.
  • Engage HCS staff in exploring ways to improve and/or evaluate dementia care and in learning more about what it means to conduct ePCTs in their setting(s).
  • Co-develop a research proposal for an IMPACT Pilot or Demonstration project (or other similar NIA funding mechanism) to improve the care of PLWD and CP.

The IMPACT Collaboratory will fund up to 2 awards for a maximum of $120,000 each in direct costs in this cycle. This opportunity is available to investigators at all levels. Applicants from under-represented racial and ethnic groups and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applicants are expected to apply with a HCS partner and should hold a faculty or research scientist position at an academic institution or work within a HCS.

Priority will be given to applications including HCSs that:

  • Provide care to underrepresented populations (e.g., minorities, rural communities), and/or
  • Are new to the IMPACT Collaboratory and have not already partnered with our network. Applicants should email Rachel.J.Hays@kp.org if unsure whether a HCS is new to the IMPACT Collaboratory.

An informational webinar on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 1pm ET will provide potential applicants with a program overview and application details. Potential applicants will have the opportunity to ask questions. Pre-registration is required. The webinar will be recorded and posted online.

A set of frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding this program are available at https://impactcollaboratory.org/HCS-Scholars-faq/. The FAQ will be updated by Monday, November 21, 2022.

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, November 15, 2022 @ 1pm ET: Register here for webinar.

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

December 19, 2022 by 5pm ET

Full Applications Due – By invitation only

Applications selected for further consideration will be invited to submit a full proposal due:

 March 13, 2023 by 5pm ET

Read the full RFA here. Learn more about our previous Health Care Systems Scholar Awardees here.

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

IMPACT Members to present during GSA 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) will hold their annual scientific meeting in Indianapolis November 2-6, in Indianapolis, IN. The theme of the conference is, “Embracing our Diversity. Enriching Our Discovery. Reimagining Aging.” Members of the IMPACT Collaboratory will be presenting their work throughout the conference. For more information about the meeting, including registration, click this link.

See details on IMPACT Collaboratory presentations below:

 

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

(Pre-Conference Workshop)

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Securing Pilot Research Funding: Strategies for Success Through the NIA Supported Centers Program

Ab Brody, PhD, RN, FAAN, Core Leader, Pilot Studies Core

 

Thursday, November 3, 2022

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Caregiver Subgroup Analyses from an Embedded Dementia Care Effectiveness Trial

Rick Fortinsky, PhD, Executive Committee, Implementation Core

 

Friday, November 4, 2022

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Gerontologic Biostatistics: Merging with Data Science and Toward Personalized Medicine

Heather Allore, PhD, Core Leader, Design and Statistics Core

 

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Dementia Care in Nurse Practitioner-Led Care Management for Cognitively Vulnerable Older Adults

Rick Fortinsky, PhD, Executive Committee, Implementation Core

 

Saturday, November 5, 2022

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Recruitment for a Multisite Pragmatic Trial of Dementia Care Strategies: Barriers and Success During COVID-19

David Reuben, MD, Executive Committee, Health Care Systems Core

 

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Pilot Study to Pragmatically Embed Caregiver Dementia Education and Support in Health Care Systems

Presentation is about a pilot study funded by the IMPACT Collaboratory by Rick Fortinsky, PhD, Executive Committee, Implementation Core

 

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Excursions into Health Care Systems to Help Informal Caregivers Manage Dementia

Rick Fortinsky, PhD, FGSA, Executive Committee, Implementation Core
Hillary Lum, MD, PhD, Health Care Systems Scholar
Quincy Samus, PhD, MS, Health Care Systems Scholar
Christopher Callahan, MD, Core Leader, Training Core

 

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

Presidential Symposium: Building and Leveraging Community Partnerships that Embrace Diversity, Enrich Discovery, and Reimagine Aging

Kalisha Bonds Johnson, PhD, RN, IMPACT Faculty Scholar

 

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Positive Affect in Dementia Care Dyads

Symposium led by Joan Monin, PhD, MS, Executive Committee, Design & Statistics Core

IMPACT Collaboratory Funds New Pilot Study Award

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The IMPACT Collaboratory is happy to announce to announce the awardee of the IMPACT Pilot Grant Program Cycle 4A. The recipient was selected from an impressive group of competitive applications.

IMPACT Collaboratory Pilot Grant Award Recipient (RFA 2022)

Katherine Abbott, PhD, MGS, Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University (Oxford, OH)
Testing the Feasibility of the Individualized Positive Psychosocial Intervention

To learn more about Dr. Abbott’s pilot study and our previous pilot grant awardees, visit the Pilot Grant Awardees page. Learn more about all of the IMPACT Collaboratory funding and training opportunities at this page. 

 

About the Pilot Grant Program

The Pilot Grant Program funds several one-year pilots for ePCTs that test non-pharmacological interventions embedded in health care system(s) to improve care for people living with AD/ADRD and their care partners. Pilot studies are conducted to generate the preliminary data necessary to design and conduct future full-scale Stage IV effectiveness ePCT (based on the NIH Stage Model) that will be funded through other grant mechanisms (National Institutes of Health or other sources).

IMPACT Members provide resources to a new topic within Pepper Center’s GRASP statistical analysis resource

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Members of the IMPACT Collaboratory Design and Statistics Core recently contributed to a curated list of statistical analysis programs for biostatisticians engaged in studies of human aging.

Heather Allore, PhD, and Joan Monin, PhD, MS and colleagues authored the Analyzing Dyad Data with Additional Clustering resource in GRASP, an online resource developed by the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers at Yale University, Duke University and Wake Forest University. The program provides a brief introduction and overview of approaches to dyadic analysis with references as well as two approaches to performing dyadic analysis when dyads are nested in a higher level of clustering, such as dyads participating in cluster-randomized clinical trials.

See the full list at this link.

Abstract deadline for upcoming HCSRN conference is October 7

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Health Care Systems Research Network is accepting abstract and panel submissions for their upcoming Annual Conference until October 7, 2022. The conference will be held in Denver, CO, on February 21-23, 2023.

The theme of the annual conference will be Leveraging the Power of the Network in Rapidly Changing Times. For full details and information about the conference overall, please visit this website.

Allore joins JAMAevidence podcast to discuss latent class analysis to identify hidden clinical phenotypes

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Heather Allore, PhD, Core Leader for the IMPACT Design and Statistics Core, recently appeared on the JAMAevidence podcast to discuss latent class analysis to identify hidden clinical phenotypes. A latent variable is an unobserved variable that investigators don’t have a construct or measure for, but believe it exists and could impact outcomes. Dr. Allore uses frailty as an example of latent variables in the discussion.

The podcast was hosted by JAMA Statistical Editor Roger Lewis, MD, PHD and is a supplement to the JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods.

Listen to the podcast at this link.