Massachusetts Center for Alzheimer and dEmeNtia behaVIoral reSearch In minOrity agiNg (Mass-ENVISION)

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Massachusetts Center for Alzheimer and dEmeNtia behaVIoral reSearch In minOrity agiNg (Mass-ENVISION) is a proposed new Alzheimer's-related Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (AD/ADRD RCMAR) that will address the critical need for mentored research training for underrepresented in medicine (UiM) scientists in the development, testing, and implementation of behavioral interventions across hospital and community settings, for racial and ethnic minority older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) and their informal care partners. There is a dearth of evidence-based behavioral interventions to support minority older persons with ADRD, their informal care partners, and dyads, as well as a critical gap in the number of UiM scientists poised to mitigate this shortage. To address these research and resource gaps, Mass-ENVISION will identify UiM scientists who are committed to ADRD behavioral health and interventions research and will support training and development of independent UiM scientists poised to eliminate health disparities and inequities in ADRD behavioral health. Further, Mass-ENVISION would become the only RCMAR to serve the entire New England region, which is in critical need of this resource. Mass-ENVISION, a collaboration of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston University (BU) and Cambridge Health Alliance and their medical school affiliations (Harvard Medical School, BU School of Medicine), university-affiliated hospitals, other Boston and MA- area research centers, satellite hospitals and community clinics, will provide RCMAR Scientists with interdisciplinary, comprehensive training and sustained and tailored mentoring in ADRD behavioral health and interventions research using the revised NIH Stage Model, the Science of Behavior Change, prevention approaches under the Centers for Disease Control disease stage-based (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary) and the National Academy of Medicine target-based (indicated, selective, universal) frameworks, and the NIA Health Disparities Research Framework. Mass-ENVISION will collaborate closely with other NIA-funded Centers and their investigators, including the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (MADRC), Boston University ADRC (BU-ADRC) and Boston Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, to translate biological and epidemiological advances as mechanistic targets for ADRD behavioral interventions. Mass-ENVISION will be led by a UiM PI, Dr. Okereke (Director, MGH Geriatric Psychiatry and MGH Psychiatry Center for Racial Equity and Justice), with strong collaborative track records with team members and Core Leads/Co-Leads, who are also from diverse and UiM backgrounds (e.g., Black, Asian, Latino, first generation at college) and have complementary expertise in ADRD, health disparities and health equity research, social and behavioral health, behavioral interventions, implementation science, and interdisciplinary science. Mass-ENVISION will have 4 Cores: Leadership and Administrative, Research Education Component, Data and Analysis, and Community Liaison and Recruitment. Cores will be composed of investigators who are diverse with respect to backgrounds, institutional affiliations in MA and Greater Boston, disciplines, and research and training skills, to facilitate Mass-ENVISION’s success in developing an inclusive research mentoring environment and a diverse biomedical research workforce to advance health equity in ADRD behavioral health.