Pilot
Awards
Open Positions
Webinars & Workshops
Award
Opportunies
Pilot Awards
NIA COVID-19 Supplement Recipients
Principal Investigators: Sarah Berry, MD, MPH, Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life; Vince Mor, PhD, Brown University School of Public Health
Drs. Berry and Mor were awarded a supplement to improve COVID-19 testing for underserved and vulnerable populations as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, the RADx Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program. This initiative will leverage the foundation of the IMPACT Collaboratory to establish IMPACT-COVID-19 (IMPACT-C), a collaborative dedicated to developing and evaluating SARS-CoV-2 testing strategies in highly vulnerable residents and health care workers of skilled nursing facilities. IMPACT-C will assemble the organizational, administrative, and expertise components necessary to swiftly conduct a rigorous vaccine trial, when available.
Principal Investigator: Ellen McCreedy, PhD, MPH, Brown University School of Public Health
Dr. McCreedy and her team will conduct a cluster randomized embedded pragmatic clinical trial (ePCT) by leveraging electronic health records of Bluestone Physician Services to test the effectiveness of a COVID-specific, advance care planning (ACP) intervention on documentation of care preferences among assisted living community (ALC) residents with AD/ADRD from 150 ALCs in 3 states.
Principal Investigator: Lewis Lipsitz, MD, Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife
Dr. Lipsitz and his team will evaluate the efficacy of a Massachusetts state-funded strategy to minimize the spread of COVID-19 among older adults and their care providers within Massachusetts NHs using multiple data sources. Efficacy will be measured over the 2-month intervention period among all residents in nursing homes (NHs) across Massachusetts compared to those in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Principal Investigator: Joshua Chodosh, MD, MSHS, NYU Langone Health
Dr. Chodosh and his team will design and pilot test an intervention that leverages the COVID-19 antibody and PCR status of residents and staff to inform staff-residents care assignments to minimize COVID-19 transmission rates. The team will conduct the study in two New York City facilities with high minority and AD/ADRD representation and compare intervention units using this strategy with those that do not.
Open Positions
The Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University invites applications for two faculty positions in Quantitative Methods in Behavioral Data Science. One position will be at the rank of assistant professor, and one will be open-rank. We seek candidates who are dedicated to our research mission and passionate about teaching in a world-class institution.
We are especially interested in candidates developing data science methods to understand developmental and change processes; to inform substantive theories; to support causal inferences; or to improve the design and implementation of intervention or data collection. We welcome applications from individuals who are developing innovative methods and models for understanding and predicting longitudinal processes across multiple systems (e.g., behavior, physiology), multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individuals, families, institutions), and/or multiple timescales (e.g., minutes, days, years), such as latent variable modeling, network and graph theoretic models, dynamic or dynamical systems models, machine learning, categorical data analysis, item response theory, panel methods for constructing counterfactuals, or simulation-based approaches.
The Population and Social Processes Branch (PSP) is recruiting a dynamic and experienced economist/health services researcher to manage and develop a portfolio of innovative grant-supported research and research training in health systems topics in aging and health. This portfolio will focus on connections between health systems and healthy aging, with emphases on the Medicare and Medicaid programs as well as long-term care. The portfolio features research utilizing large data sets, quasi-experimental techniques as well as pragmatic trails and field experiments. Read a full description on our website. Contact PSP Branch Chief John Phillips (john.phillips@nih.gov) with any questions.
Webinars & Workshops
The CDC: Nursing Home COVID-19 Immunization Initiative: An Amazing Success Story
April 15, 2021
2:00-3:00pm EST
The webinar will be presented by Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles, Staff Epidemiologist for the CDC and Lieutenant Commander for the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Dr. Link-Gelles will be discussing the massive effort and success story of the CDC in immunizing nursing home and long-term care facility residents against COVID-19 following vaccine approval in the United States.
April 12 from 12-1pm ET
Organized by the Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL) of Weill Cornell Medicine in conjunction with the Michigan’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center of the University of Michigan and the Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence (PRICE) of the University of Florida.
April 23 from 12-1pm ET
Organized by the RCMAR Coordinating Center.
April 28-29 from 11am-3:45pm ET
Organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Sponsored by NIH.
2021 NIH Alzheimer’s Research Summit: Path to Precision Medicine for Treatment and Prevention
April 19-22, 2021
10:00AM-3:30PM EDT
Join leading scientists and other innovators, public health advocates, and other stakeholders April 19-22, 2021, for a virtual summit showcasing progress in Alzheimer’s disease research. Participants also will identify gaps and opportunities toward the goal of precision medicine for Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention.
The Summit agenda is organized around seven major topics:
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Deconstructing Disease Complexity: From Populations to Single Cells, from Genes to Multiscale Models
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Enabling Infrastructure and Incentives to Improve Research Rigor, Reproducibility, and Translatability
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Accelerating Therapy Development: Open Science from Targets to Trials
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Diversifying the Therapeutic Pipeline to Develop Precision Medicines
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Emerging Biomarkers Landscape
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Advancing Drug Repurposing and Combination Therapy Development
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Understanding the Impact of the Exposome on Brain Health to Advance Disease Prevention
"If we are all created equally, then why am I treated differently: Contextualizing social determinants in understanding (and explaining) health outcomes among older African Americans"
Thursday, May 6, 2021
3:00PM-4:30PM EST
Tamara Baker, PhD
Professor Department of Psychiatry UNC School of Medicine
Symptoms associated with many chronic illnesses can impact an individual’s physical and psychological health, social existence, and emotional well-being. However, factors associated with the experience and management of these health outcomes, particularly among older African Americans are poorly understood, as they are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age, and with more severe and debilitating medical illnesses. This presentation will continue the discussion in how we can and should address the influence social and cultural determinants have in explaining health outcomes across the life course of African Americans, while recognizing the influence each has in research, clinical, and community-based settings. Further discussion will focus on addressing how and why health disparities, inequalities, inequities continue to plague our most vulnerable and marginalized populations. The session will conclude with suggestions for creating a platform that emphasizes institutional and social change, while addressing the needs of older African Americans in the US.
The presentation recordings and slides are now available from the RCCN Virtual Workshop Inclusion of Older Adults in Clinical Research!
The meeting included sessions on aspects of including older adults in clinical research including the Current Situation, Barriers - Real and Perceived, Making the Case, and Best Practices for Reaching Out to Colleagues
Selected presentation recordings from the workshop:
Monday, April 12, 2021
11:00 to 1:30 EST
In this pre-conference course, NIA program officials—Dr. Jonathan King and Dr. Lisa Onken—will provide important information about NIH’s Inclusion Across the Lifespan Policy, focusing on inclusion of older adults in clinical research. Next, established researchers will share helpful strategies from their own research with older adults, including older family dementia caregivers, Latinos, African Americans, and Veterans, followed by open Q&A and discussion. The course is targeted toward students, postdoctoral fellows, and new and established investigators interested in learning effective strategies for recruitment and retention of diverse populations of older adults in behavioral medicine research. Please click here for more details!
Registration is open on the SBM website. Open to all – members and nonmembers of SBM. Registration for the full conference is not required.
Award Opportunities
Notice of Intent (NOI) to Publish a New Funding Opportunity Announcement for IMPACT Demonstration Projects
RFA Release: Expected February 2021
The NIA IMPACT Collaboratory is pleased to inform the community that the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory plans to publish a Request for Applications (RFA) for Demonstration Projects for large-scale embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) testing the effectiveness of a care delivery intervention program in a health care system for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and/or their care partners.
Under this mechanism, interventions must be linked to the needs of a health care system and powered to detect a significant difference in the primary outcome between trial arms. The goal of the demonstration projects is to generate evidence on effective care delivery practices that can be expanded and/or implemented in other systems.
The IMPACT Collaboratory will give preference to applications for Demonstration Projects that address dementia care for populations traditionally marginalized or underrepresented in clinical trials and those that promote health equity. It is anticipated that Demonstration Projects will be funded for up to $500,000 in direct costs for a maximum of 24-months.
The RFA is expected to be published in February 2021. Stay tuned for updates regarding the release of the RFA, an informational webinar and application deadline. If you have questions related to this funding opportunity, please contact IMPACTcollaboratory@hsl.harvard.edu. Additional details will be shared as they become available on the website at www.IMPACTcollaboratory.org.
Training Workshoop and Retreat: Building Skills to Conduct Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trials for People Living with Dementia and their Care Partners
Wednesday, April 7, 2021 from 1:30pm - 4:30pm ET
Thursday, April 8, 2021 from 10:00am - 4:30pm ET
The IMPACT Collaboratory will hold its first annual Training Workshop and Retreat, “Building Skills to Conduct Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trials for People Living with Dementia (PLWD) and their Care Partners,” on April 7-8, 2021.
We are inviting applications from early to mid-career researchers who seek to develop competence in designing and conducting ePCTs of interventions to improve care for PWLD and their care partners. We anticipate accepting up to 25 participants to attend the workshop.
This virtual 1.5-day workshop and retreat will provide a foundation in practical aspects of designing and conducting ePCTs in AD/ADRD through a combination of panel discussions, small group sessions, and networking opportunities with experts in the field. Workshop modules will focus on healthcare systems, implementation science, and study design.
Participants will gain knowledge in ePCT design and method, problem-solve challenges faced in current or planned projects, and network and engage with the larger community of IMPACT investigators. Throughout the program, special attention will be paid to key considerations in design, implementation, and monitoring ePCTs of PLWD and care partners to ensure health equity.
Successful applicants will be expected to complete selected readings and online training prior to the workshop. Please note that all participants will be expected to attend and participate in the entire 1.5-day IMPACT Collaboratory Training Workshop and Retreat.
Visit here for more information and to apply.
NIH Request for Information Regarding Use of Common Data Elements
The NIH has issued a Request for Information (RFI) regarding use of Common Data Elements (CDEs) in NIH-funded research, particularly, but not exclusively, in the context of COVID-19.