Keith Goldfeld, DrPH, MS, MPA of the IMPACT Design and Statistics Core, recently published two blog posts examining whether it is possible to reduce the sample size requirements of a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial by collecting baseline information. Goldfeld explains that reducing sample size requirements is possible for randomization at the individual level and in cluster randomized ...

IMPACT members Monica Taljaard, PhD, Fan Li, PhD, and IMPACT multiple principal investigator Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH are among the authors of a new article addressing methodological challenges in pragmatic trails in Alzheimer’s disease in the November 2021 issue of Clinical Trials.

The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Cores and Teams are creating a series of guidance documents to share important considerations and approaches to planning and conducting embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) with people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. The first of these documents is, “Creating Effective Value Propositions” developed by the Implementation Core.  The guide ...

IMPACT Collaboratory multiple principal investigator Vince Mor, PhD, and Brown University’s Center for Long-Term Care Quality & Innovation are partnering with the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, Exponent, and other research partners in a powerful new initiative, funded by the National Institute on Aging, which enables public health surveillance of COVID-19 and ...

Members of the Executive Committee for the IMPACT Stakeholder Engagement Team have collaborated to create a guide for researchers seeking stakeholder advisors living with dementia. Brenda Nicholson, MD , and Louise Phillips, MD, MBA, are retired physicians who are living with dementia. Both have participated as stakeholder advisors and research partners for important research-related initiatives on ...

The article describes stepped wedge cluster randomized trial (SW-CRT), as an increasingly popular design for evaluating health service delivery or policy interventions. An essential consideration of this design is the need to account for both within-period and between-period correlations in sample size calculations. Especially when embedded in health care delivery systems, many SW-CRTs may have ...

IMPACT multiple principal investigator Vincent Mor, PhD, co-authored a systematic review to examine the evidence base on factors associated with COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society (JAGS). The authors state that COVID-19 pandemic created a “perfect storm” in its impact within ...

The IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to announce a Request for Applications (RFA) for the second cycle of the Demonstration Project Program. IMPACT will fund up to two Demonstration Projects (maximum duration 24 months) designed as full-scale, Stage IV effectiveness embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCT) (based on the NIH Stage Model) that test, measure and evaluate the ...

Members of the IMPACT Collaboratory co-authored an editorial in the October edition of the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (JAMDA) addressing the limitations of the linear model for development and testing on new interventions and the need for support for dissemination and implementation of dementia care interventions. Joseph Gaugler, PhD, and Laura Gitlin, PhD ...

Multiple NIA IMPACT members participated in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) virtual workshop entitled, “Behavioral and Social Research and Clinical Practice Implications of Biomarkers and Other Preclinical Diagnostics of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias” (AD/ADRD) on June 28 and 29, 2021. The meeting addressed behavioral and social science research questions raised ...