News

NIH Collaboratory Grand Rounds – EHR Workshop Series

Posted on by Erin Luers

The NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory is launching a special workshop series on its popular Grand Rounds program to explore challenges and opportunities in using electronic health records (EHRs) in pragmatic clinical trials. The series will highlight advances in digital health, new approaches and evolving standards for EHRs, and implications for researchers conducting pragmatic trials.

The webinar series will kick off on Friday, May 1 at 1 p.m. ET with a keynote presentation by Dr. Robert Califf, head of strategy and policy for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health.

The series will include four moderated webinar discussions with panels of experts, wrapping up with a podcast discussion in July. Download the EHR workshop series flyer and see the full schedule below. All sessions are free and open to the public; no registration required. Recordings will be archived on the Grand Rounds website.

We hope you can tune in!

New NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory summary covers statistical issues in ePCTs

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory recently released a summary of a 2019 comprehensive workshop to explore and discuss statistical issues encountered with embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs). The new Workshop Summary describes panel discussions with the principal investigators and statisticians of NIH Collaboratory Demonstration Projects and the challenges and solutions encountered during the design and analysis of their trials.

Read more about the workshop and access the full summary on the NIH Collaboratory website.

Two new IMPACT Collaboratory funding opportunities: Request for Applications for Pilot Grant Award and Career Development Award Programs

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 has released two new funding opportunities available for investigators interested in developing embedded pragmatic clinical trials in dementia research. In support of our mission, the IMPACT Collaboratory is requesting applications for the Pilot Grant Award and Career Development Award (CDA) Programs.

Pilot Grant Awards are 1-year non-renewable awards to generate the preliminary data necessary to design and conduct future full-scale embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) of non-pharmacological interventions in healthcare systems for people living with AD/ADRD and/or their care partners.

Career Development Awards are 2-year mentored research awards to support the development of early-stage MD, PhD, or equivalent researchers who seek careers conducting ePCTs for people living with AD/ADRD and/or their care partners.

The IMPACT Collaboratory will hold informational webinars for each grant program in the coming weeks. Detailed information about these programs as well as timelines, eligibility, and other requirements are provided below and in the request for applications (RFAs). Updates will be posted to impactcollaboratory.org.

Pilot Grant Program RFA

The IMPACT Collaboratory will fund up to five 1-year non-renewable pilot grant awards for up to $175,000 in direct costs. Letters of intent are required and due May 29, 2020. Full proposal applications are by invitation only and will be due September 4, 2020. For further details, please see the on the IMPACT Pilot Grant Program webpage.

In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) outbreak, the IMPACT Collaboratory will prioritize applications proposing pilot ePCTs of telemedicine, telehealth, and remote technologies interventions aimed at improving health care, unmet needs, quality of life and/or health outcomes for people living with dementia and/or their care partners for this award cycle. Applications for pilot ePCTs testing other types of non-pharmacological interventions in this population will also be considered.

Two optional informational webinars will be held to provide additional information and answer questions from potential applicants. Registration is required and can be completed through the links below:

  • Informational Webinar #1 for IMPACT Pilot Grant RFA
    April 28, 2020 01:30 PM Eastern Time. Watch webinar here.
  • Informational Webinar #2 for IMPACT Pilot Grant RFA
    May 6, 2020 04:00 PM Eastern Time. Registration closed.

Registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information to join the webinar.

Career Development Award (CDA) RFA

The IMPACT Collaboratory will fund two to three, 2-year Career Development Awards (CDAs) to support the development of early-stage MD, PhD, or equivalent researchers who seek careers conducting embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) for people living with dementia and their care partners. CDAs provide support for up to $100,000 per year in direct costs and candidates are required to devote a minimum of 75% effort toward the goals of the CDA. The IMPACT Collaboratory will prioritize applications that address dementia care for people of all backgrounds and promote health equity.

Full Applications are due July 15, 2020. There is no letter of intent. For further details, go to the IMPACT CDA Program webpage.

Two optional informational webinars will be held to provide additional information and answer questions from potential applicants. Registration is required and can be completed through the links below:

  • Informational Webinar #1 for IMPACT CDA
      April 29, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time. Registration closed.
  • Informational Webinar #2 for IMPACT CDA
      May 20, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Time. Registration closed.

Registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information to join the webinar.

The IMPACT Collaboratory encourages all eligible researchers to take advantage these important funding opportunities, which have the potential to advance care for people living with dementia and/or their care partners in real-world settings. For more information about the IMPACT Collaboratory, please visit impactcollaboratory.org.

The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory is supported through funding from the National Institute on Aging (U54AG063546).

IMPACT members participate in national virtual workshop on systematic review

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

On April 15 2020, the National Academies’ Committee on Care Interventions for Individuals with Dementia and Their Caregivers hosted a virtual public workshop. This workshop brought together key stakeholders and experts to provide input to the committee on a draft Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) systematic review that examines existing evidence on care interventions that support individuals with dementia and their caregivers. This AHRQ systematic review will form the predominant basis of the National Academies committee’s report on which care interventions can be considered ready for broad implementation and dissemination.

IMPACT Collaboratory members Eric Larson, MD, MPH, Chris Callahan, MD, MACP, Jason Karlawish, MD, Maria Aranda, PhD, Laura Gitlin, PhD, FGSA, FAAN, and Joe Gaugler, PhD all participated in the workshop to provide input on the systematic review.

Read the full workshop agenda and participants on the workshop summary website.

Update from IMPACT Collaboratory: Stakeholder Engagement Report on Research Priorities

Posted on by Erin Luers

We are pleased to share a new report from the IMPACT Stakeholder Engagement Team, led by Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD and Katie Maslow, MSW, regarding stakeholder research priorities.

This report is a compilation of work beginning with input from the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee and then finalized after additional Stakeholder Engagement Team discussion during and following the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory in-person meeting January 28 & 29, 2020.

The IMPACT Collaboratory’s Stakeholder Engagement Team (SET) conducted a one-day in-person meeting on December 3, 2019 including members of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) and additional participants relevant to the IMPACT Collaboratory’s efforts regarding stakeholder engagement.

 

 

New blog post on clustered randomized trials and the design effect

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The latest blog post from Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA, member of the executive committee of the IMPACT Collaboratory Design and Statistics Core, discusses how the design effect could provide additional insight into cluster randomized trials in his most recent blog post. The ideas in this blog post were motivated in part by Goldfeld’s work with the IMPACT Collaboratory.

Gitlin’s Tailored Activity Program highlighted in Wall Street Journal

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Tailored Activity Plan (TAP),  a home-based occupational therapy intervention shown to reduce behavioral symptoms in people living with dementia and caregiver burden, was recently included in an article in the Wall Street Journal. The TAP program was developed by Laura Gitlin, PhD, FGSA, FAAN, Dean and distinguished professor at College of Nursing and Health Professions, at Drexel University and leader of the IMPACT Collaboratory Implementation Core and her colleagues. Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal at this link.

Goldfeld discusses analyzing data from a stepped-wedge designed cluster randomized trial in a real-world context

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA, member of the executive committee of the IMPACT Collaboratory Design and Statistics Core, recently discussed his work with the IMPACT Collaboratory on his blog, ouR data generation.

Goldfeld wrote about how to analyze data from a stepped-wedge designed cluster randomized trial. He said that this design can be an important tool to evaluate interventions in a real-world context, including research for the IMPACT Collaboratory in dementia and Alzheimers disease.

Read the full blog entry here: https://www.rdatagen.net/post/analyzing-the-open-cohort-stepped-wedge-trial-with-binary-outcomes/

Mitchell shares a look back at research in advanced dementia and links to her career

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

NIA IMPACT Collaboratory multiple principal investigator Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH, spoke at the February 4 Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center Series at the Perelman School of Medicine at Pennsylvania University. Her talk, “Advanced Dementia: The Evolution of Research Informing Practice,” included a look at the overall body of work in advanced dementia and the evolution of her own research.

Mitchell described her research to date in three phases: Retrospective, Prospective, and Interventional, and described studies in each phase and how they contributed to the overall body of knowledge about advanced dementia. Mitchell concluded her talk with an introduction to the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory, describing how effectiveness and efficacy research continue the evolution of research in advanced dementia care.

To view the entire talk, please go to the PAIR Series site here: https://mediasite.med.upenn.edu/mediasite/Play/61d9013c63a24554bad8fa2506d1dfdd1d and begin the video at the 13:12 mark.

Harrison outlines the need for embedded pragmatic clinical trails and how IMPACT can help in AcademyHealth editorial

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

, Executive Director for the IMPACT Collaboratory at Brown University, authored a blog post for AcademyHealth describing the need for embedded pragmatic clinical trails and how the IMPACT Collaboratory can help.

Harrison describes the rise in diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias as a global public health crisis and describes how embedded pragmatic clinical trials can help to gather real world data for clinical trials, and incorporate diverse stakeholders into study design. Read the full blog post on the AcademyHealth website.