Uncategorized

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).

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.

 

 

IMPACT Health Equity Team

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The Health Equity Team (HET) focuses on developing and implementing strategies to address diversity and inclusion in the conduct of ePCTs for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners to ensure the IMPACT Collaboratory is a national resource for all Americans afflicted with dementia. Learn more about how the HET is working to increase health equity in dementia care from Core Leader Ana Quiñones, PhD, MS.

 

 

 

 

The IMPACT Collaboratory Health Equity Team from NIA IMPACT Collaboratory on Vimeo.

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/

Registration open for statistical conference focused on cluster randomized clinical trials

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

IMPACT Steering Committee and Design and Statistics Core member Monica Taljaard, PhD, will be part of a panel at the 13th University of Pennsylvania Conference on Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials  on April 29th.  The conference will focus on challenges and opportunities in cluster randomized clinical trials. Registration is now open. 

NIA IMPACT Collaboratory member speaks at NIH Collaboratory Grand Rounds

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Richard Platt, MD, MS, a member of the Executive Committee for the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Technical Data Core, was among the presenters at the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory Grand Rounds on Friday, December 6th. Details are below:

Topic

Millions More People, Stronger Collaborations: The New and Improved NIH Collaboratory Distributed Research Network

Date

Friday, December 6, 2019, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

Speakers

Richard Platt, MD, MS
Professor and Chair
Harvard Medical School
Department of Population Medicine

Kevin Haynes, PharmD, MSCE
Principal Scientist
HealthCore

Denise Boudreau, PhD
Senior Scientific Investigator
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD
Professor of Medicine, Family Medicine and Community Health, and Population & Quantitative Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Executive Director, Meyers Primary Care Institute

Christopher B. Granger, MD
Professor of Medicine
Duke University

 

NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Stakeholder Engagement Team holds in-person meeting

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory’s Stakeholder Engagement Team (SET) conducted an all-day meeting on December 3, 2019  at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, MA. Attendees included the SET, the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC), and additional participants relevant to the IMPACT Collaboratory’s efforts regarding stakeholder engagement. Click here to see the full list of participants. .

The objectives were to:
1) Review the role of the SAC;
2) Provide advice to the IMPACT Collaboratory on how to integrate stakeholder engagement into its mission;
3) Strategize about the optimal way to assist the selection and guidance of pilot project; and
4) Discuss priority topics to address in guidance materials.

After a welcome from Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD, and Katie Maslow, MSW, Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH, presented an overview of the IMPACT Collaboratory. This was followed by personal messages about the importance of research to address aspects of the lived experience of dementia presented by a person living with dementia, Louise Phillips, MD, and a family caregiver and dementia care clinician, Katie Brandt, MIM.

Historic definitions of SE as prepared by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute were provided by Lori Frank, PhD, MA. Ellen Tambor, MA, presented SE work from the original NIH Collaboratory; this was followed by information from Katie Maslow about SE specific to dementia care research in the U.S.   The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory’s process for supporting pilot ePCTs was reviewed by Laurie Herndon, MSN, followed by suggestions from Jill Harrison, PhD, as to how stakeholders can be integrated into the pilot study processes.

In the afternoon, pilot study expectations were further explored as they relate to the involvement and engagement of people with lived experiences of dementia as well as a wide array of clinicians, service providers, health care system leaders, and payers.

Antonia Bennett, PhD, of the Collaboratory’s Patient and Caregiver Reported Outcomes (PCRO) Core and Monica Moreno, BS,  of the Alzheimer’s Association described the development of a “Lived Experience Panel”. This was followed by a discussion of engaging health systems leaders which was led by Alice Bonner, PhD, RN,  and included Lee Jennings, MD, MSHS, David Gifford, MD, MPH, and others.  The final session was an overview of selected advice from the SAC emanating from the day.

Outcomes of the meeting included:

1) Successful orientation of SAC members;
2) Preliminary plans for clarifying definitions and processes regarding SE within the Collaboratory;
3) Review of SE activities related to pilot study investigators; and
4) Discussion of SE activities including development of a Lived Experiences Panel, guidance documents for investigators, a logic model for SE activities within the Collaboratory, and methods for evaluation of SE activities.