Portfolio

The common theme among the research projects in our diverse portfolio is innovation: in terms of the intervention itself or the pragmatic methods we continually refine when conducting research under real-world conditions in healthcare settings.

Selected funded studies are detailed below as examples of our research. “PIs” are the principal investigators leading each project.

Current Research Projects

National pharmacy data-sharing consortia
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Vincent Mor, PhD
Priority area:
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety
Project:
Multiple projects involve aggregating data from national pharmacies and linking these data with claims data, to facilitate large-scale research on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety among older adults
Innovation:
Collectively, the consortia include data for nearly half of the nation’s Medicare recipients, enabling pragmatic measurement on an unprecedented scale. The consortia are among numerous administrative supplements to the IMPACT Collaboratory.
Read more:

Brown Press Release

IMPACT Press Release

COVID-19 vaccination among nursing center staff
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Sarah Berry, MD (Hebrew SeniorLife)
Q&I PI:
Vincent Mor, PhD
Priority area:
Nursing center staff COVID-19 vaccination
Project:
Conduct a pragmatic trial in which nursing centers are randomized to implement one of two educational interventions to increase staff COVID-19 vaccine uptake
Q&I role:
This trial is one of numerous administrative supplements to the IMPACT Collaboratory and is jointly led by IMPACT’s co-leads, Q&I and Hebrew SeniorLife.
Innovation:
Nursing center staff COVID-19 vaccine coverage remains, on average, under 50%, but there are no proven interventions to increase uptake. This trial was originally funded to focus on COVID-19 testing strategies, but shifted to vaccination as the pandemic evolved rapidly. The team’s ability to pivot attests to our responsiveness to the environment.
Read more:
“Somebody Like Me”: Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Staff in Skilled Nursing Facilities
Advance care planning for assisted living community residents with dementia
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH (Hebrew SeniorLife)
Q&I PI:
Ellen McCreedy, PhD, MPH
Priority area:
Advance care planning
Project:
Conduct a pragmatic trial in which assisted living communities are randomized to implement one of two educational interventions targeting residents living with dementia and their families
Q&I role:
This trial is one of numerous administrative supplements to the IMPACT Collaboratory and is jointly led by IMPACT’s co-leads, Q&I and Hebrew SeniorLife.
Innovation:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective advance care planning interventions for residents living with dementia, but few such interventions have been tested in assisted living communities. The study also involves a novel research partnership with a physician practice that provides on-site primary care in assisted living.
Read more:
IMPACT Press Release
 
Rehabilitation research in all care settings
Funder:
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
PI:
Linda Resnik, PT, PhD, FAPTA (Brown University)
Project:
Create the Learning Health Systems Rehabilitation Research Network (LeaRRn), a national resource network to advance stakeholder-partnered, rehabilitation learning health systems research 
Priority areas:
Rehabilitation research
Innovation:
Partnering researchers with health systems to to improve the quality of rehabilitation care, demonstrate value, and enhance patient and system outcomes
Individualized music for nursing center residents with dementia
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Vincent Mor, PhD (Brown University)
Project:
Implement and evaluate the popular Music & Memory program
Priority area:
Dementia care
Innovation:
Conducting a large pragmatic trial in nursing centers using a combination parallel and step-wedged design is novel and will be applicable for other topics and trials
Additional information:
The lead investigator is Ellen McCreedy, PhD
Dementia pragmatic trials in all care settings
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Vince Mor (Q&I) and Susan Mitchell (Hebrew SeniorLife)
Priority area:
Dementia care
Project:
Establish a collaborative research incubator, the IMPACT Collaboratory, to fund and support non-drug dementia intervention studies in all care settings
Q&I role:
Co-leading the Collaboratory and its national working groups, in partnership with HebrewSeniorLife
Innovation:
National research infrastructure is necessary to accelerate the pace of embedded pragmatic clinical trials to improve care for persons living with dementia and their families. The Collaboratory funds and provides expert assistance to non-drug dementia pilot studies, while developing and broadly disseminating best practices for the conduct of such research.
Nursing center resident influenza and pneumococcal vaccination coverage
Funder:
Sanofi
PI:
Barbara Bardenheier, PhD
Priority area:
Influenza vaccination
Project:
This qualitative study captures information on nursing centers’ policies and practices related to influenza and pneumonia vaccination
Innovation:
Brown studies have established significant variation in facility-level resident influenza and pneumococcal vaccine coverage. There is a need to understand how practices differ between centers with low and high coverage before testing an intervention to increase uptake. The team will also capture some information related to COVID-19 vaccination.
Read more:

Geographic variation in influenza vaccination among U.S. nursing home residents: A national study.

High-dose flu vaccine reduces hospital visits for nursing center residents

High-dose flu vaccine is cost effective for nursing center residents

Completed Research Projects

Staff experience during the pandemic
Funder:
Brown University Seed Funding
PI:
Rosa Baier, MPH (Brown University)
Project:
Survey frontline staff working in long-term care during the pandemic
Priority area:
Infection prevention
Innovation:
Documenting the voices of frontline workers is important and will arm us with insight into interventional research needs
Clinical consultation following hospital to nursing center transition
Funder:
Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality
PI:
Lew Lipsitz, MD (Beth Israel Medical Center)
Q&I PI:
Julie Lima, PhD (Brown University)
Priority area:
Hospital readmission
Project:
Video teleconferences between hospital and nursing center providers
Q&I role:
Evaluation 
Innovation:
The ECHO-Care Transitions intervention uses readily-accessible technology to bring expert consultation to nursing center providers and ensure seamless transitions from the hospital to the nursing center
Programmable, tunable LED lighting in nursing centers
Funder:
McClung Lighting Research Foundation
PI:
Rosa Baier, MPH (Brown University)
Priority area:
Dementia care
Project:
Assess feasibility of evaluating the impact of lighting on sleep and behaviors
Innovation:
Programmable, tunable LED lights – a particular kind of light fixture that changes in color and intensity to mimic day and night light cycles – may improve circadian rhythm entrainment among persons with dementia
Additional information:
The team includes experts from the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, Center of Design for an Aging Society, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Nursing center resident-directed advance care planning
Funder:
National Institute on Aging
PI:
Gail Towsley, PhD (University of Utah)
Q&I PI:
Rosa Baier, MPH (Brown University)
Priority area:
Advance care planning
Project:
Videos of residents expressing their preferences
Q&I role:
Nursing center recruitment and intervention fidelity
Innovation:
Using videos to capture and share the preferences of residents with dementia is a novel approach to including residents’ voices in care conference discussions