News

IMPACT member Ana Quiñones to participate in NIH Collaboratory annual meeting steering committee panel

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

IMPACT Health Equity Team Leader, Ana Quiñones, PhD, MS, will participate in a moderated Steering Committee panel discussion focusing on health equity entitled “Focus on Health Equity: The ePCT Landscape/Ecosystem,” as part of the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory annual meeting.

Quinones will contribute to the Steering Committee panel goals of identifying national programs and initiatives that are striving to improve health equity. The panel is expected to discuss best practices for engaging minoritized and other underrepresented communities to improve health equity and examine the impact of these initiatives and how lessons are disseminated across different stakeholder groups. The closed meeting will be held May 16, 2023.

Vince Mor presenting at National Academy’s “Addressing the Rising Mental Health Needs of an Aging Population: A Workshop”

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

IMPACT multiple principal investigator, Vince Mor, PhD, will present at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine public workshop exploring the current state of mental health care for older adults in the United States and potential strategies to address the mental health needs and challenges of an aging population.

Mor, who is a National Academy workshop planning committee member, will moderate a session called “Promoting Resilience and Positive Mental Health in Older Adults.” The two-day workshop will be held May 15-16, 2023, in Washington DC and virtually, online via Event Bright.

Learn more and register for the workshop.

McKnight’s news profiles Mor as Pinnacle Award honoree

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

IMPACT multiple principal investigator Vince Mor, PhD is profiled as an honoree by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care, part of McKnight’s Senior Living. Mor was honored with an “Industry Ally” award at McKnight’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards in March for his decades of research to improve long-term care. McKnight’s will profile other Pinnacle Award honorees daily through May.

Read Mor’s honoree profile.

IMPACT Collaboratory announces the 2023 Health Care Systems Scholars Program Awardees

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory (U54AG063546) is pleased to announce the 2023 Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars Program awardees.

This program offers investigators an opportunity to work directly with health care systems interested in improving the care provided to people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. The goals of the HCS Scholars Program are to embed investigators in health care systems to:

  • Establish mutually beneficial partnerships to improve the care of PLWD and their care partners.
  • Train investigators about health care settings’ needs and how new programs are successfully introduced at all levels of the organization.
  • Engage HCS in learning more about what it means to conduct ePCTs and provide resources for understanding opportunities for improvement in dementia care or evaluation of related quality improvement projects.
  • Strengthen collaborations between investigators and HCS that may lead to pilot studies or demonstration projects.

Recipients of this year’s HCS Scholar awards are:

Co-Designing Care Transition Support for Dementia Patients and Care Partners             

Building an Academic Long-Term Care System Coalition to Improve Palliative Care

Goldfeld develops a simple way to simulate setting sample size for variable cluster sizes in randomized trials

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA, member of the executive committee of the IMPACT Design & Statistics Core, recently published a blog post inspired by discussions with collborators from the IMPACT Collaboratory.

Goldfeld discussed how the question of variable cluster sizes has come up a number of times in recent discussion with IMPACT Collaborators about setting the sample sizes for proposed cluster randomized trials, Goldfeld explains that when working with  a fixed overall sample size, it is generally better (in terms of statistical power) if the sample is equally distributed across the different clusters. Highly variable cluster sizes increase the standard errors of effect size estimates and reduce the ability to determine if an intervention or treatment is effective.

Goldfeld realized that there is no easy way to generate the desired variable cluster sizes while holding the total sample size constant using simstudy, his preferred simulation package. In response to this, he developed a simple solution that is available for download on the blog.

Read the full post here.

Clapp to present at Society for Clinical Trials 44th Annual Meeting

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) will hold its 44th Annual Meeting May 21-24 in Baltimore, MD. The theme is “Championing High-quality Evidence to Optimize Human Health.” Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH, member of the executive committee of the Ethics & Regulation Core, will be presenting, “Physician Gatekeeping in Pragmatic Trials: A Qualitative Study of Clinical Reasoning about Patient Randomization” during the conference.

Learn more at this link.

Mor to speak at workshop on addressing the rising mental health needs of an aging population

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will host an Ad Hoc workshop planning for the addressing the rising mental health needs of an aging population in Washington, DC on May 15 and 16. IMPACT multiple principal investigator Vincent Mor, PhD, is an invited presenter at the workshop, which will cover the areas of: mental health and substance use conditions among older adults; strategies to improve the quality and capacity of mental health services for older adults; and ways to build and sustain comprehensive programs to support the well-being of older adults with mental health conditions, among other topics.

Register for the workshop.

 

National collaboratory seeks candidates for mentorship program to improve care for older adults at risk of elder mistreatment

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

The National Collaboratory to Address Elder Mistreatment Mentorship Program (NCAEM) is seeking a new cohort for its one-year mentorship program to support clinicians, service providers, researchers, policymakers, and advocates who are focused on improving care for older adults experiencing or at risk of experiencing elder mistreatment. Each year a newly selected cohort participates in the program. Ideal candidates may be from many disciplines, such as social workers, health care workers, community organizers, or researchers willing to be paired with an expert mentor, design and complete a selected project and attend an annual conference at the programs conclusion. Applicants representing or working with underserved populations are encouraged to apply. The first cohort will be selected by early June, 2023.

The deadline to apply is May, 5, 2023. Visit the Collaboratory mentorship program website for more information.

Multiple IMPACT members present at NIA Dementia Care & Caregiving Summit March 20-22

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

IMPACT members will participate in the three-day 2023 National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Supports for Persons Living with Dementia (PLWD) and Their Care Partners/Caregivers. Daily sessions will explore the latest research for PLWD and their partners and caregivers, as well as facilitated sessions with the Lived Experience and Stakeholder panels.

Registration is now open. The Summit will be held virtually on March 20-22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time each day. Submitting the registration form will enable you to join any or all three days of the Summit proceedings.

Register for the event.

 

Watch – Words Matter: Shortcomings and challenges of nomenclature in Alzheimer’s disease

Posted on by Jeannine Sato

IMPACT Ethics and Regulation Core Leader, Jason Karlawish, MD, hosted a virtual conversation on the shortcomings and challenges of nomenclature in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and learn about the opportunities to address these challenges. He was joined by IMPACT Stakeholder Advisory Committee member, Angela Taylor, BA of the Lewy Body Dementia Association.

Karlawish and Taylor discussed questions and consideration in the field’s nomenclature including:: What’s the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia? Should we still use the word dementia? Does it make sense to say that a person with MCI can progress to Alzheimer’s disease? In the term ADRD, does the second “D” stand for “disease,” “disorder,” or “dementia”?

The entire discussion can be viewed on You Tube.