Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth (AGING) Initiative

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN)-Older Americans Independence Centers (OAICs) AGING (Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth) Initiative (R24AG045050/R33AG0577806) was launched in 2014 to address knowledge gaps around multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) in older adults by fostering an interdisciplinary research agenda. Our mission has been to counter the traditional single-condition, siloed approach to the care of older adults and advance the science of MCCs. The AGING Initiative is a highly productive, collaborative, transdisciplinary endeavor involving scientists from 20 HCSRN research centers, embedded within healthcare delivery systems caring for over 2 million persons aged 65 and older, in partnership with investigators from 15 premier, university-based centers established by the National Institute on Aging (the OAICs). In this competitive renewal, our overarching aim is to build on our successful efforts and collaborations, while taking the AGING Initiative in new, more ambitious, and sustainable directions. We will seek to promote health equity, further integrate diverse patients and care partners into our scientific activities, expand efforts to foster the careers of underrepresented minority (URM) scientists, and expand our efforts to engage with a more diverse group of patients/care partners and a broader array of organizations to improve the care of older adults with MCCs. Our specific aims are: (1) to foster research innovation and translation of research findings into practice through an MCCs Research Innovation, Translation, and Dissemination core that will: (a) fund targeted, interdisciplinary pilot grants (MCCs Innovation Grants); (b) promote inclusion of underrepresented populations in clinical trials relevant to the care of older adults with MCCs; (c) disseminate key research findings relevant to the care of older adults with MCCs; and (d) enhance engagement and collaboration with patients and care partners in research activities; (2) to foster the development of innovative methods under a Methods, Measures, and Data Core that will: (a) stimulate development and implementation of innovative research designs; (b) disseminate measures that “matter most” to patients, care partners, and healthcare providers; (c) identify new data sources and research partnerships; and (d) provide guidance and mentorship to junior investigators starting their “first” project; and (3) to foster the career development and success of new and early-stage investigators through an expanded nation-wide cohort of MCCs Scholars by: (a) enhancing mentoring and networking opportunities in direct response to feedback from current and former MCCs Scholars; (b) expanding efforts to identify and recruit URM junior investigators; (c) increasing collaborations with other NIA-sponsored research networks that have scholar programs to increase discourse on MCCs; and (d) building upon a highly successful collaboration between the American Geriatrics Society and the AGING Initiative (R25AG071488) to create and widely disseminate a new MCCs research curriculum.