# LINC-AD: Leveraging an Interdisciplinary Consortium to Improve Care and Outcomes for Persons Living with Alzheimer's and Dementia

> **NIH NIH R24** · ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION · 2022 · $292,605

## Abstract

Among the recommendations of the 2017 National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Supports for
Persons with Dementia and their Caregivers is the development of methods for measuring person-centered
outcomes. This goal aligns with that of the Alzheimer's Association, which recently released their 2018
Dementia Care Practice Recommendations, organized around a nine-domain model of dementia care. While
developing the recommendations, critical limitations were noted in the measures and care tools available to
guide practice and evaluate outcomes. Specifically, existing measures do not adequately reflect the voices of
persons with dementia and their caregivers; focus on biomedical rather than psychosocial issues; are deficit-
as opposed to strengths-based; insufficiently consider the system in which care is provided; and overlook the
importance of the context (e.g., stage of disease) in which they are to be used. These goals for better
measurement constitute a paradigmatic shift in the field that is long overdue. Even with better measures, there
is also a dearth of tools to help providers know whether they are fully following evidence-based practices.
Absent such tools, quality improvement is hampered. In response, we propose to create an international
research network, entitled Leveraging an Interdisciplinary Consortium to Improve Care and Outcomes for
Persons Living with Alzheimer's and Dementia (LINC-AD). The core of the consortium will be the current
Dementia Care Practice Recommendations working group members (the Research Advisors), and a second
group composed of persons with dementia, caregivers, and professional providers (the Care Advisors). The
LINC-AD consortium will undertake a series of high impact activities designed to usher in the next phase of
psychosocial research in care for persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. Using the nine
domain model as a framework, LINC-AD will broaden scientific interest and involvement in psychosocial
dementia research while completing the following aims: (1) critique existing outcome measures and care tools
and identify gaps; (2) promote the development of new outcome measures and care tools where needed; and
(3) facilitate the dissemination, adoption, implementation, and sustained use of existing and new outcome
measures and care tools. Collaboration with the Alzheimer's Association brings unique and substantial
resources to this proposal. The Association will work with our Research and Care Advisors, host webinars and
meetings, issue calls for papers, and fund a minimum of twelve seed grants responsive to the project aims.
They will also host a permanent and sustainable online repository for the resulting LINC-AD recommended
measures and tools, and add a psychosocial arm to their existing state-of-the-art online shareable database
(Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network; GAAIN). The results of the LINC-AD will facilitate a larger
and more connected scientific community t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10397125
- **Project number:** 5R24AG065185-04
- **Recipient organization:** ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Sam Fazio
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $292,605
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10397125

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10397125, LINC-AD: Leveraging an Interdisciplinary Consortium to Improve Care and Outcomes for Persons Living with Alzheimer's and Dementia (5R24AG065185-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10397125. Licensed CC0.

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