The IMPACT Collaboratory has announced two pilot study awards, to Brent Forester, MD, MSc. at Mass General Brigham, and Ula Hwang, MD, MPH, at the Ican School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Forester's intervention involves an adaptation of the Care Ecosystem model, which trains primary care nurse case managers to deliver telephone-based collaborative dementia care. Dr. Hwang's intervention embeds cognitive impairment screening into the routine care of older patients in the emergency department and refers those identified as needing formal cognitive evaluation for outpatient assessment.

These awards are the first two projects funded through a five-year grant awarded to Brown University and Boston-based Hebrew SeniorLife in September 2019, ​to lead a nationwide effort to improve health care and quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as their caregivers. The Collaboratory funds pilot studies to test non-drug, care-based interventions for people living with dementia, while developing and broadly disseminating best practices for implementing and evaluating such interventions. 

Visit the Collaboratory's website to read the announcement, as well as to learn about an open call for letters of intent for pilot studies.