# Health Systems Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $470,907

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Most persons with dementia (PWD) receive care outside of institutions, meaning that the physical, emotional,
and financial burdens of dementia are borne not only by patients, but their caregivers as well. The fragmented,
complex US health care system exacerbates the challenge of delivering coordinated, whole-person care for
PWD. Designing and testing effective, practicable, non-pharmacological interventions must take into account
the heterogeneity of the health care landscape, the specific needs of this complex population, and the context
in which care is delivered. Although multiple interventions designed to improve care for PWD and their
caregivers have demonstrated efficacy, few have been adopted widely, and virtually none formally tested in
functioning health care systems (HCS). Reflecting the many unanswered questions in optimizing care for
PWD, our imperative is to close the gap between the development and testing of interventions and their later
adoption in real-world HCS. Thus, to develop a robust national capability to support embedded pragmatic
clinical trials (ePCT), we must leverage the combined expertise of researchers and front-line clinicians to
design interventions that ensure replicability, scalability, and sustainability. We will apply this expertise as we
address the unique intricacies of conducting ePCTs focused on meeting the needs of PWD and their
caregivers. The Health Care Systems (HCS) Core of the proposed National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Alzheimer's disease (AD)/AD-related dementia (AD/ADRD) HCS Collaboratory will engage experts from
integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, nursing home systems, home care companies and
other community based providers to accomplish the following Specific Aims. Aim 1. Establish a collaborative,
supportive research resource involving diverse HCS in order to support and facilitate research in the settings
where PWD and their caregivers receive care; Aim 2. Develop, document, and disseminate setting-specific
approaches to conducting ePCTs in PWD; Aim 3. Facilitate the conduct of rigorous pilot studies, Career
Development Award (CDA) projects, and NIH-funded ePCTs in diverse care HCS targeting PWD and their
caregivers. IMPACT: A successful HCS Core will partner with the other AD/ADRD Collaboratory Cores and
Teams to facilitate rigorous, high-quality research studies focused on PWD and their caregivers, in which
multiple health care delivery organizations participate. Combining deep expertise in ePCTs and first-hand
knowledge of caring for the AD/ADRD population in a range of settings, the HCS Core will become an
unparalleled national research resource to help promulgate successful HCS based interventions designed to
meet the needs of PWD, caregivers, and health systems that serve them.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11092550
- **Project number:** 3U54AG063546-05S2
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric B Larson
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $470,907
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11092550

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11092550, Health Systems Core (3U54AG063546-05S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11092550. Licensed CC0.

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