UCSF Older Americans Independence Center

描述（由申请人提供）：老年残疾，定义为需要帮助的日常活动，是常见的，负担和昂贵的病人，家庭和社会。老年残疾受到医疗脆弱性（包括合并症、医疗保健、药物、程序、神经精神状况和行为方面）、社会脆弱性（社会支持、财政资源、沟通和识字以及种族）及其相互作用的影响。UCSF OAIC将致力于解决这些残疾或死亡风险增加的弱势群体中晚年残疾的预测因素、特征和结果。UCSF OAIC的首要目标是通过以下目标改善患有或有残疾风险的弱势老年人的医疗保健和生活质量：1)通过作为汇集学者和利用资源的中心，促进UCSF弱势老年人的残疾研究；2)为UCSF资助的项目提供切实的、高价值的支持，以激发新的残疾研究，并为高级和初级研究人员带来新的研究机会；3)支持试点研究，加速晚年残疾的科学研究，并为研究提供资金；4)确定老年医学研究的未来领导者，并为他们提供职业发展资金和特殊指导；5)建立一个领导和管理结构，促进跨学科合作，使OAIC大于其各部分的总和。为了实现其目标，UCSF OAIC将在PI Ken Covinsky的领导下支持5个核心。LAC将为整个UCSF OAIC提供领导支持。RCDC将利用RCDC学者和高级学者计划来识别、支持和培养将成为老龄化研究领域国家领导者的年轻研究人员。RDAC将加强对外部资助赠款（外部项目）、OAIC试点项目和RCDC项目的分析，并将开展发展项目（DP）。DMAC将帮助研究人员设计具有理想的残疾研究数据源的研究，支持研究人员在正在进行的研究中添加残疾措施，

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Late-life disability, defined as needing help with daily activities, is common, burdensome, and costly to patients, families, and society. Late-life disability is influenced by medical vulnerabilities (including comorbid illnesses, aspects of medical care, medicines, procedures, neuropsychiatric conditions, and behaviors), social vulnerabilities (social supports, financial resources, communication and literacy, and ethnicity), and their interaction. The UCSF OAIC will focus its efforts on addressing predictors, characteristics, and outcomes of late-life disability in these vulnerable populations at increased risk for disability or death. The overriding goal of the UCSF OAIC will be to improve the health care and quality of life of vulnerable older adults with or at risk for disability through the follwing aims: 1) Catalyze research on disability in vulnerable older persons at UCSF by serving as a hub that brings together scholars and leverages resources; 2) Provide tangible, high-value support to funded projects at UCSF that stimulate new research on disability, and lead to new research opportunities for senior and junior investigators; 3) Support pilot studies that accelerat science and lead to research funding in late life disability; 4) Identify the future leaders of geriatrics research and support them with career development funding and exceptional mentoring; and 5) Develop a leadership and administrative structure that spurs interdisciplinary collaboration, making the OAIC greater than the sum of its parts. To achieve its aims, the UCSF OAIC will support 5 Cores under the leadership of PI Ken Covinsky. The LAC will provide leadership support for the entire UCSF OAIC. The RCDC will utilize the RCDC Scholars and Advanced Scholars Programs to identify, support, and nurture junior investigators who will become national leaders in aging research. The RDAC will enhance analyses of extramurally funded grants (External Projects), OAIC pilot projects, and RCDC projects, and will conduct a Development Project (DP). The DMAC will help investigators design studies with data sources ideal for disability research, support investigators adding disability measures to ongoing studies, and conduct a DP. The PESC will promote innovative and promising research that enhances our understanding in ways that can mitigate late-life disability, and that leads to ROI funding. By evaluating how medical and social vulnerabilities contribute to the disablement process, the UCSF OAIC will make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of how to best care for older adults who are at risk for or developing disability, advance research and guide clinical practice.