The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory hosted the second annual Steering Committee & Business Planning Meeting on April 6-7, 2021.  The meeting was virtual this year due to the pandemic, and included more than 130 participants.

Highlights from the event include remarks from Richard Hodes, MD, the director of National Institutes on Aging, a Mission Moment presented by Brenda Nicholson, MD, retired physician and person living with dementia, and updates from IMPACT leadership.  Presentations highlighted IMPACT activities, funded investigators, and research efforts related to COVID-19.

The meeting began with a welcome from the IMPACT Collaboratory Principal Investigators Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH and Vince Mor, PhD. The director of the National Institute on Aging, Richard Hodes, MD, added remarks about how IMPACT has worked toward its goals in the past two years.

Brenda Nicholson, MD, a retired physician, member of the Stakeholder Engagement Team Executive Committee, and person living with dementia, provided the meeting Mission Moment. Mission Moments are designed to provide real-word insight into the IMPACT Collaboratory mission of building the nation’s capacity to conduct pragmatic clinical trials embedded within healthcare systems for people living with dementia and their care partners. Dr. Nicholson’s Mission Moment reflected on her experience of living with dementia during COVID-19.

Dr. Mitchell shared the IMPACT Collaboratory’s accomplishments since the beginning of the project in September 2019. Click here to see a larger image of the accomplishments to date.

Other meeting highlights included updates from the IMPACT Pilot Grant Awardees on the progress of their projects, and achievements of the Health Equity Team, Pilot Studies Core, data sharing, and Ethics and Regulation Core. Investigators also provided updates on three Intervention Supplements, which connect projects and data sources to the broader IMPACT mission.

Day 1 ended with updates from the Training Core and introductions to the first group of Career Development Awardees.

Day 2 featured the convening of the IMPACT External Advisory Panel and Steering Committee, and four Special Sessions led by the Health Equity Team, Design and Statistics Core, and the Ethics and Regulatory Core.