MIT Roybal Center for Translational Research
to Improve Healthcare for the Aging
MIT Roybal Center for Translational Research to Improve Healthcare for the Aging
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
J-PAL North America
Cambridge, MA
Health care delivery reform in the United States has the potential to dramatically improve the health care experience and health in general. This is especially true for the aging population who interact with the health care system more frequently and suffer particularly serious health problems. Too little is known, however, about which interventions could be effective for improving the health of said population; this proposal seeks to identify, fund, and support low-cost, high-impact Stage I trials of behavioral interventions for mid-life and older individuals. The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), founded in 2003, is a network of more than 165 affiliated professors at over 55 universities, united by their use of randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions. J-PAL North America (NA) was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013 by Amy Finkelstein (MIT) and Lawrence Katz (Harvard) to apply the J-PAL approach in the region. J-PAL NA’s Health Care Delivery Initiative (HCDI) focuses on catalyzing high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test how best to improve health care delivery. The MIT Roybal Center proposes to leverage this foundation to spur and support early-stage RCTs to test behavioral interventions to improve health care delivery and health outcomes for older adults. It will support two Stage I pilots in its first year: