News

Center for Aging and Serious Illness offers Dementia Palliative Care Clinical Trials Training Program

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Center for Aging and Serious Illness (CASI) is offering a ten-month training program for early- to mid-career researchers and health professionals interested in developing competence in the planning, design, and execution of randomized clinical trials in persons with Alzheimer’s Disease or Related Dementias (ADRD). The program will include a combination of webinars, small group sessions, and a five-day in-person Institute where learners will work together to design a trial. Learners will also develop their own grant application addressing ADRD.

Key dates for the training program are as follows:

  • Applications Due: September 2, 2022
  • A week-long in-person meeting, also called “The Institute”: January 9 – 13, 2023
  • Bi-Monthly Workshops: February – April 2023
  • Introductory Webinar: August 18 at 3:30-4pm ET
  • Introductory Webinar: August 22 at 9:30-10am ET

To learn more about the CASI Dementia Palliative Care Clinical Trials Training Program and to register for the Introductory webinars, visit The Center for Aging and Serious Illness (CASI)

Mor named to CBO Panel of Health Advisers

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

NIA IMPACT multiple principal investigator Vincent Mor, PhD, has been named to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Panel of Health Advisers.

The panel is a group of widely recognized experts in health policy and the health care sector who provide feedback and recommendations to the CBO. Panelists usually serve three-year terms, and meet in person once a year as well as advise the CBO in-between meetings for tasks such as developing analytic questions and preparation of studies.

Dr. Mor joins 21 other experts on the panel. The full list of panelists can be found at this link.

IMPACT Collaboratory members participate in 2022 AAIC

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The IMPACT Collaboratory had a strong presence at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, held July 30-August 4, in San Diego, CA.

Members of the IMPACT Administration Core led a pre-conference workshop on July 29th designed to share key considerations in the design and conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials for persons living with dementia. IMPACT members who organized and led the workshop included Jill Harrison, PhD, Vincent Mor, PhD, Partha Bhattacharyya, PhD, Marcel Salive, MD, MPH, Kenneth Hepburn, PhD, María Aranda, PhD, MSW, MPA, LCSW, Ellen McCreedy, PhD, MPH, David Reuben, MD, Deborah Barnes, PhD, MPH, and Joseph Gaugler, PhD.

Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, PhD, a member of IMPACT’s Executive Committee and Health Equity Team, received the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer's Disease Research at the conference. The award recognizes a senior investigator whose contributions have shown a lasting impact on the field and whose body of work has demonstrated a career-long commitment towards progress against Alzheimer's and dementia.

IMPACT member presentations included:

Katie Brandt, MM, presented, "Courage in Care Planning: Advance Care Planning Readiness in the Context of COVID-19 for Caregivers of Individuals Living with Dementia"

Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN, presented, "Participant First: Improving Communication with and Support for Participants in Trials that End Early"

Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH, presented, "Using Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trials to Improve Dementia Care"

Vince Mor, PhD, presented, “NIA AD/ADRD IMPACT Collaboratory: Expanding Pragmatic Trials in Health Systems”

Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc, co-authored three abstracts:

  • Pilot Trial of Dronabinol Adjunctive Treatment of Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease (THC-AD)
  • Identifying delirium in advanced dementia in the ECT-AD clinical trial
  • Projection in Proxy Assessments of Everyday Preferences for Persons with Cognitive Impairment

IMPACT Collaboratory announces two funding opportunities

Posted on by Erin Luers

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory is happy to announce a Request for Applications for two separate funding opportunities: Pilot Grant Program and Demonstration Projects Program.  These opportunities support research and training to increase the nation’s capacity to conduct pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) of non-pharmacological interventions within healthcare systems to improve care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias(AD/ADRD) and their care partners.

Two NIA IMPACT Funding Opportunities

Pilot Grants RFA Demonstration Projects RFA
Informational Webinar
August 30, 2022 @ 3pm ET. 
Registration closed.		 Informational Webinar
August 8, 2022
To be posted online.
Letters of Intent Due
September 15, 2022 @ 5pm ET		 Letters of Intent (by Email)
September 16, 2022 @ 5pm ET
Full Proposals Due
January 20, 2023 @ 5pm ET		 Full Proposals Due
December 21, 2022 @ 5pm ET

 

Pilot Grants Program
IMPACT will fund up to five 1-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.  The goal of these 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.

This grant cycle will prioritize applications for non-pharmacological interventions that aim to:

  • Reduce inequities in health care
  • Reduce potentially inappropriate medications through de-prescribing
  • Improve care in the emergency department

Learn more about previous Pilot Grant Awardees here.  If you have questions about the Pilot Grant Program please visit the Frequently Asked Questions webpage or email IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu.

 

Demonstration Projects Program

IMPACT will fund up to two 18-month Demonstration Projects designed as full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness ePCTs (based on the NIH Stage Model) that test, measure and evaluate the effect of a care delivery intervention program in health care systems for people living with AD/ADRD and their care partners. The goal of these Demonstration Projects is to generate evidence on effective care delivery practices that can be expanded and/or implemented in other systems.

Under this mechanism, the interventions must be linked to the needs of the health care system. Suitable intervention typically encompass relatively simple system changes or direct patient outreach, or successfully piloted programs ready for testing at scale. Demonstration Projects 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.

Learn more about previous Demonstration Project Awardees here. If you have questions about the Demonstration Project Program, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions webpage or email IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu.

Learn more about the IMPACT Collaboratory on our website. Keep up-to-date on these and future opportunities by joining our mailing list and following us on social media at IMPACT Twitter IMPACT LinkedIn.

Please help to publicize the IMPACT funding and training opportunities and encourage investigators and colleagues to apply.

 

Alzheimer’s Association seeking Senior Director of Health Services Research

Posted on by Manda

The Alzheimer’s Association is seeking applications for a Senior Director of Health Services Research. The role offers an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the scientific and medical community, payers and other health systems researchers and experts, to discuss the social determinants of health, health behavior, intervention methods, program planning and evaluation, health communication, and community-based participatory research. This is an interdisciplinary opportunity, blending research economics, public health, implementation and epidemiology, among other expertise, to build a comprehensive perspective of how health systems respond to and adapt to changing healthcare environments and the broader determinants of health.

The position requires a PhD with 5-10 years of experience. Interested applicants get full details on the position and apply online at this link.

IMPACT members receive award to update international guidance on the ethical design and conduct of CRTs

Posted on by Manda

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has awarded a research team including several IMPACT members more than $500,000 to study ethical issues in cluster randomized trials (CRTs).

IMPACT members Monica Taljaard, PhD, Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH, Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN, Alex John London,PhD, and Cory Goldstein, PhD, MA are on the research team seeking to update the Ottawa Statement on the Ethical Design and Conduct of CRTs. The original Ottawa Statement was published in 2012 and remains the only international guidance document specifically focused on CRTs. The CIHR-funded research will address the ethical challenges that have resulted from growth and innovation in the field since that time. The research team will examine and address gaps identified and incorporate new recommendations into the Ottawa Statement and create two implementation guidance documents that reflect how the recommendations apply in common CRT settings.

Read more details on the full research program funded at The Ottawa Hospital at this link.

Dilworth-Anderson awarded 2022 Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research

Posted on by Manda

IMPACT’s Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, PhD received the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC). This award recognizes a senior investigator whose contributions have shown a lasting impact on the field and whose body of work has demonstrated a career-long commitment towards progress against Alzheimer’s and dementia. Dilworth-Anderson’s research focuses on health disparities. She is a member of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Imaging Dementia—Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (New IDEAS) Study team as well as IMPACT’s Executive Committee and Health Equity Team.

To learn more about the awards presented at AAIC 2022, visit this link.

Notice of Intent (NOI) to Publish Two New Funding Opportunities on August 1, 2022

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to announce plans to publish new Requests for Applications (RFA) for Pilot Grants and Demonstration Projects on August 1, 2022*. Letters of Intent for both opportunities are due mid-September 2022.

*August 1st is the new RFA release date. This date has been modified from the original date, which was August 15th.

Pilot Grants Program
IMPACT funds one-year awards of 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. The goal of these 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). Learn more about previous awardees at this link.

In this cycle, priority will be given to applications for interventions in this population that aim to:
• Reduce inequities in health care
• Reduce potentially inappropriate medications through de-prescribing
• Improve care in the emergency department

Demonstration Projects Program

IMPACT funds 18-month Demonstration Projects designed as full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness ePCTs (based on the NIH Stage Model) that test, measure and evaluate the effect of a care delivery intervention program in health care systems for people living with ADRD and their care partners. The goal of these Demonstration Projects is to generate evidence on effective care delivery practices that can be expanded and/or implemented in other systems. The intervention will typically encompass relatively simple system changes or direct patient outreach, or successfully piloted programs ready for testing at scale. Demonstration Projects 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. Learn more about previous awardees at this link.

Updates on these two RFAs will be posted on the  Grants and Training Programs page.

New video shares Health Care Systems Scholar Dr. Hillary Lum’s experience creating a research program to improve dementia care

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Hillary Lum, MD, PhD, IMPACT Health Care System Scholar, has created a brief video sharing the story of her 1-year journey with The University of Colorado UC Health preparing to conduct real world research to improve dementia care.

The brief video describes the goals and progress over the last year as Dr. Lum and her colleagues developed a program to improve dementia care by improving communication and care communication in dementia care by using health information tools such as patient portals.

Dr. Hillary Lum Shares Her Experience Developing a Program to Conduct Real-World Research in People Living with Dementia from NIA IMPACT Collaboratory on Vimeo.