Supported by the Common Fund at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory aims to improve the way clinical trials are conducted by creating a new infrastructure for collaborative research with healthcare systems. The ultimate goal is to ensure that healthcare providers and patients can make decisions based on the best available clinical evidence.

The Collaboratory also supports the design and rapid execution of pragmatic clinical trial Demonstration Projects that address questions of major public health importance and engage healthcare delivery systems in research partnerships. These projects help to establish best practices and provide proof of concept for innovative designs in pragmatic clinical research.

The Collaboratory also provides training resources on how to design, conduct, and disseminate embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs). These materials reflect the knowledge, insight, and best practices acquired by the NIH Collaboratory program and its ePCT Demonstration Projects.

The Clin-STAR (Clinician–Scientists Transdisciplinary Aging Research Coordinating Center) Initiative aims to connect and support the development of clinician-scientists across a variety of disciplines in order to expand aging research that focuses on improving the health, independence, and well-being of older adults. To facilitate these goals, Clin-STAR provides funding, mentorship, and resources for clinician-scientists at all careers levels across a variety of disciplines. They also host the Clin-STAR database, a discovery tool that enables research collaboration and networking among members.

The Center for Aging and Serious Illness (CASI) at Massachusetts General Hospital aims to improve the well-being of older adults and enhance the lived experience of those with advanced illnesses. By creating a pipeline of strong investigators, conducting applied clinical studies, and supporting a robust research community, CASI aims to engage aging populations in research, illuminate how to provide effective care for serious illnesses, and augment well-being for older adults and their care partners.

LTCFocus is a product of the Shaping Long-Term Care in America Project being conducted at the Brown University Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research and supported, in part, by the National Institute on Aging. LTCfocus.org provides data on nursing home care in the US. Their goal is to allow researchers to trace relationships between state policies, local market forces, and the quality of long-term care and enable policymakers to craft state and local guidelines that promote high-quality, cost-effective, equitable care for older Americans.

DICEmethods.org | Dissemination, Implementation, Communication, and Engagement
A guide for health researchers

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Here are some helpful resources to learn more about stepped-wedge designs:

• Information content of stepped-wedge designs when treatment effect heterogeneity and/or implementation periods are present
• Sample size calculation for stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trials with more than two levels of clustering