PROJECT SUMMARY - CARE RESEARCH CORE (CORE H) Rigorous research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) care to improve outcomes encompasses intensive investigations on care contexts, care partners, models of care, and a variety of interventions designed to improve disease management and outcomes for persons with AD and related dementias and their care partners. As one of the few geriatrics-based ADRCs, the Wisconsin ADRC has a strong track record of developing and supporting rigorous care-focused AD research, launching the first ‘AD Care Research Core (Core H)’ in the past renewal cycle (2019). Since then, Core H has successfully met its initial objectives, 1) recruiting a registry of well- characterized patients across all stages of AD and their care partners and establishing a linkage with health record data; 2) growing infrastructure across a variety of clinical systems to facilitate translational AD care research; and 3) supporting development of a rich array of multi-disciplinary consultant expertise spanning all facets of care research and, particularly, AD-disparities aligned social exposome inquiry as a key resource leveraged by the full ADRC network. Core H remains systematically integrated with other Cores, offering an unparalleled opportunity to investigate highly innovative, rigorous research questions that straddle the fields of AD biomarkers, diagnostics, and clinical care. Core H will continue to support new collaborations focusing on diverse settings that span the continuum of AD care from diagnosis to advanced disease. Specific Aims are: Aim 1: Care Research Infrastructure: 1a) Continue to provide and diversify ready collaborations with “research ready” clinical settings to facilitate AD care-focused research to advance the development and testing of care approaches across diverse settings and populations reflective of the full spectrum of AD care priorities; 1b) Strategically expand the established Care Core Registry of individuals with AD and their care partners to address under-studied care contexts/settings in the dementia care process and provide opportunities for plasma biomarker (Core G) and brain donation (Core D); 1c) Maintain electronic health record linkages to existing well- characterized ADRC subject cohorts and merge with AD biomarker (plasma, CSF, neuroimaging) and cognition data. Aim 2: Context of Care (Exposome) Research Infrastructure: Advance integration of AD-disparities aligned social exposome approaches pertinent to the study of AD disease processes, management, and receipt of care across the ADRC network through continued investment in aligned Core H resources. Aim 3: Methodology, Training, and Consultation: 3a) Develop and nationally disseminate resources for AD care and care partner research engagement; 3b) Provide training to UW-Madison investigators and staff on AD care research methods; 3c) Provide pre- and post-award consultation to investigators implementing and/or planning AD care research studies and assist in grant preparation, study design, and startup. Through these aims, Core H will provide comprehensive AD care research support towards enhanced rigor, quality, and advancement of the field, which will directly lead to improvements in outcomes for persons with AD and their care partners.
