ABSTRACT The Leadership & Administrative Core (LAC) will oversee daily operations of the Northwestern Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC), implementing its mission to generate novel research to improve quality of life and independence for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. The LAC will coordinate activities across all OAIC (a.k.a. `Pepper Center') Cores: Research Education (REC), Pilot/Exploratory Studies (PESC), Resources (Design, Measurement, Analytics), Information Dissemination (IDC), as well as bridge to multiple healthcare systems, community, government, academic, and industry partners. Administratively based within Northwestern's Center for Applied Health Research on Aging (CAHRA), our proposed OAIC will be strongly supported by the Department of Medicine, Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) and Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute. An External Advisory Board will convene bi- annually to review the progress of our new Pepper Center and provide objective feedback on how we might further expand our impact. We have also intentionally linked the LAC + IDC. The LAC specific aims are to: Aim 1 Establish the Northwestern Pepper Center and advance an innovative, applied research agenda focused on improving primary care for older adults with MCC. Aim 2 Expand the Northwestern Pepper Center network of collaborators, and stimulate new research and education opportunities to address current issues related to primary care models for MCC. Aim 3 Continually monitor and comprehensively evaluate Northwestern Pepper Center activities and its progress towards established goals. The LAC will manage daily operations and external communications, and challenge Northwestern Pepper Center faculty to consider how best to serve the national OAIC Network to uniquely contribute to the science related to geriatrics-informed, primary care management of older adults with MCC to improve function and independence. To do this, LAC faculty and staff will regularly encourage its Cores to collaborate with one another and find new, innovative ways to leverage their expertise and functions in partnerships with the many involved, affiliated external partners, other OAICs, and aging centers. Working with the IDC, the LAC will continually promote and disseminate Center research and its available services, and be responsible for routinely monitoring and reporting on Northwestern's OAIC progress towards clearly defined and measurable Pepper Center goals.
ABSTRACT We propose an Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) at Northwestern University. Its mission will be to: Generate innovative research that will enhance primary care for medically complex, older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) to achieve optimal health, function, independence and quality of life. The Northwestern OAIC will catalyze research on: i) identifying modifiable clinical, healthcare system, and social environmental determinants of chronic disease outcomes, physical and mental health, and quality of life for older adults with MCC - especially those with frailty; ii) developing novel, practical, and scalable primary care management strategies that align with patient priorities, improve health outcomes and maintain independence for this vulnerable, at-risk, older adult population. The specific aims of the Northwestern OAIC are to: Aim 1 Formalize a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, aging research program dedicated to improving healthcare, functional independence, and quality of life for older adults with MCC. Aim 2 Expand Northwestern training and mentoring activities to develop future leaders in geriatrics and aging research who will transform healthcare to meet the needs of older adults with MCC. Aim 3 Stimulate applied research on the innovative design of primary care models that align with the priorities of older adults with MCC through aging-specific research resources and expertise in healthcare system & technology design (`Design Core'), patient-reported outcomes measurement (`Measurement Core') and quantitative & qualitative data analytics (`Analytics Core'). With strong institutional support and established infrastructure, we will organize internationally-recognized aging research faculty at Northwestern and establish a formal presence as a collaborative center on aging. Junior faculty with aging and MCC-related research interests will participate as mentored scientists; our OAIC will help them establish a successful career trajectory as independent investigators. Three essential Resource Cores (Design, Measurement, Analytics) will generate new methodological approaches for addressing MCC in primary care and facilitate designing and testing health system interventions via pilot and developmental projects, and through the use of an extensive portfolio of ongoing external studies. An Information Dissemination Core will leverage broad regional and national primary care networks to share findings, proactively seek collaborations, and find economies of scale in research and training activities among other OAICs and NIA centers. The Northwestern OAIC will introduce a timely and highly complementary area of focus, while bringing the greater Chicago community and Illinois into the national Pepper Center network.
