# Growing the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR 1.1) network: Expanding and sustaining an emergency care aging study infrastructure.

> **NIH NIH R33** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $778,743

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT:
 A more robust research infrastructure is urgently needed to develop and test best practices in the
emergency department (ED) setting that address the medical, health, and psychosocial needs of older patients
and persons living with dementia (PLWD). The aging population and utilization of emergency care combine to
create an opportunity in the care continuum to detect and change patient care trajectories and underscore the
urgency to identify and disseminate best practices in geriatrics and dementia emergency care. Unfortunately,
due to the lack of infrastructure, there is a paucity of research to guide this work. The field is limited by lack of
standardization and few estimates of effectiveness of interventions and geriatric care delivered at facilities that
report Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) programs. We have built and designed an early research
infrastructure, the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR) network to meet this critical need.
GEAR is a growing network of health systems with GEDs, transdisciplinary researchers, and content experts
that have created a multicenter database and pilot study opportunities focused on aging studies in geriatric and
dementia emergency care.
 We will grow the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR 1.1) network by expanding and
leveraging the research data infrastructure established during its first phase, going from 4 to 7 health systems,
from 6 to 47 hospitals, representing over 2.2M ED encounters made by over 684K unique patients. The GEAR
1.1 Ecosystem will be available to the general research community, supporting efficient access to and use of
large, multicenter datasets for the conduct of geriatric and dementia-related emergency care aging studies,
including the ability to focus on health disparities. Specifically, we will: (1) Increase the number of sites and
data capabilities of GEAR, (2) Coordinate data harmonization and data linkage development across multiple
sites including NIA LINKAGE between Medicare and GEAR 1.1 data, and (3) Conduct multicenter evaluations,
including small-scale pilot studies that leverage the GEAR Ecosystem to address research gaps identified by
GEAR priority populations.
 We will expand and build upon an early platform from which GEAR and future investigators will be able
to generate and use the data for multicenter projects, conduct larger scale observational studies, and emulate
multicenter clinical trials. This will grow intra- and inter-networks both within and across participating healthcare
systems promoting the spread and partnerships of transdisciplinary aging studies and sciences. Now that the
initial GEAR network has laid the groundwork, GEAR 1.1 will solidify the foundation to create a more mature
and sustainable research infrastructure to support the development of an evidence-base for high-quality
geriatric and dementia emergency care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10993719
- **Project number:** 2R33AG058926-08
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Ula Y Hwang
- **Activity code:** R33 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $778,743
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2029-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10993719

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10993719, Growing the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR 1.1) network: Expanding and sustaining an emergency care aging study infrastructure. (2R33AG058926-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10993719. Licensed CC0.

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