# Augmenting Nurse Support and EHR Integration for the Pragmatic Trial of the UCSF-BHA

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2024 · $166,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
Efficient and user-friendly paradigms to detect cognitive impairment, including dementia are needed in primary
care. The UCSF Brain Health Assessment accurately detects cognitive impairment via an appealing tablet
interface with automated scoring and EMR integration. With the first round of funding, we validated the paradigm
in English and Spanish speakers, developed regression-based norms that accurately classify patients by their
likelihood of impairment, identified racial and ethnic disparities and barriers to brain health care, and at UCSF
primary care the paradigm increased diagnosis rates by 40%. The primary goals of the proposed work are to
evaluate the effectiveness of the paradigm for improving brain health care via a large pragmatic trial, to address
challenges to implementation, and to pioneer precision medicine approaches to reference group adjustments. In
Aim 1, we will conduct a pragmatic cluster randomized trial in 26 Kaiser Southern California primary care clinics
to determine the effectiveness of the paradigm on detection rates and other brain health outcomes. In Aim 2, we
will identify and address challenges to implementation and sustainability. In Aim 3, we will further diversify our
well-characterized reference group and refine our detection algorithms to adjust for social determinants of brain
health (not race), which is novel and also critical for a paradigm to be appropriate for all members of the
increasingly diverse U.S. older adult population. If successful, this work will produce a validated paradigm that
is available to address the unmet need to detect cognitive impairment, including dementia, in large and diverse
populations seen in primary care, and provide useful information about wide scale implementation of the
paradigm to mitigate healthcare disparities and improve brain health care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11146922
- **Project number:** 3U01NS128913-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine Laurel Possin
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $166,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-09-15 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11146922

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11146922, Augmenting Nurse Support and EHR Integration for the Pragmatic Trial of the UCSF-BHA (3U01NS128913-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11146922. Licensed CC0.

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