NIH-Funded “Collaboratory,” Led by Brown and Hebrew SeniorLife, to Test “Real-World” Interventions
The (NIA), part of the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Institutes for Health, has awarded a expected to total $53.4 million to Brown University and (HSL) to lead a nationwide effort to improve healthcare and quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as their caregivers. The institutions-together with collaborators across the country, including researchers at -will create a massive research incubator to develop trials aimed at evaluating interventions for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The estimates that while more than 5 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, the number is expected to double by 2050. The current annual cost of dementia care exceeds $226 million a year in the U.S. alone.
A primary objective of the incubator-called the -is to fund and provide expert assistance for up to 40 pilot trials that will test non-drug, “real-world,” care-based interventions for people living with dementia. , associate professor at NYU Meyers and associate director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, will lead the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory’s Pilot Core. The Pilot Core will receive roughly $10.3 million of the estimated $53.4 million NIA grant over five years.
The Pilot Core will solicit and fund the 40 pilot trials, all embedded in real-world healthcare settings, and will guide all aspects of these studies throughout their lifecycles. The pilot projects will generate the necessary data to inform larger, definitive trials supported with federal and other sources of funding, the researchers said. Later in the project, pilots selected through the program will present at the IMPACT Collaboratory’s annual scientific conference to share results and lessons learned, further enriching the field.
“The lack of research testing interventions for patients with dementia and their caregivers in real-world settings hinders the ability of healthcare systems and social services organizations to adequately care for this large, vulnerable population,” said Brody. “The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Pilot Core will assist researchers in investigating practical interventions that can be implemented in these settings.”
“These pilot projects will seed full-scale studies aimed at both improving the quality of life and health outcomes of people with dementia and reducing the immense stress and health effects that caring for this population has on family and professional caregivers. It will also foster the expertise and career growth of researchers in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, enhancing the nation’s capacity to conduct clinical research on aging,” added Brody.
Projects will benefit from guidance from the collaboratory’s community of experts, who will assist with ethical concerns (such as how to secure informed consent from people living with dementia); technical support and generation of data on participant populations; statistics and project design; advice on how to measure patient- and caregiver-reported outcomes; dissemination of results and efforts to maximize the likelihood of implementation; partnering with healthcare systems interested in conducting trials; project administration; training for early career researchers; inclusion of and applicability to people of all backgrounds and cultures; and best practices to engage people interested in this work, including people living with dementia and their caregivers, healthcare systems, and researchers.
“This grant will revolutionize the national infrastructure for research into how care is delivered to people living with dementia and their caregivers,” said , co-leader of the collaboration and a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown’s School of Public Health. “The key is figuring out how to take an idea that worked in an ideal situation and adapt it so it can be piloted in the messy real-world system of care providers that exists across the U.S.”
“The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory will transform the delivery, quality and outcomes of care provided to Americans with dementia and their caregivers by accelerating the testing and adoption of evidence-based interventions within health care systems,” said , co-leader of the collaboration, senior scientist at HSL’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The work is supported by the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Institute on Aging of the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Institutes of Health under Award No. U54AG063546.
About NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (@NYUNursing)
is a global leader in nursing and health. Founded in 1932, the College offers BS, MS, DNP, and PhD degree programs providing the educational foundation to prepare the next generation of nursing leaders and researchers. NYU Meyers has three programs ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report and is among the top five nursing schools receiving NIH funding, thanks to its research mission and commitment to innovative approaches to healthcare worldwide.
