Center for Improving Care Delivery for the Aging (CICADA)

REVISED Project Summary – Research Education Component The Research Education Component (REC) of the proposed renewal of Penn’s Center for Improving Care Delivery for the Aging (CICADA) builds upon the major contributions and lessons learned from the CICADA program’s initial funding period and is responsive to recent dynamic changes in society, aging, health care, and research methods. The renewal is designed to strengthen the training and mentoring of CICADA’s current RCMAR Scientists and expands the program’s outreach to form career-long relationships with CICADA Alumni. In this renewal, the CICADA REC will provide mentoring and training in health services research (HSR) focused on aging to RCMAR Scientists from all backgrounds, intending to strengthen the field. We target three categories of trainees to become RCMAR Scientists: (1) MD or MD/PhD clinical fellows who have completed their residency, (2) PhD postdoctoral trainees, and (3) MD/PhD, MD, or PhD junior faculty, defined as Instructor or early-stage Assistant Professor (<3 years in the role). To help build our pipeline of promising researchers, we will continue to engage in targeted efforts to identify undergraduate and graduate students to participate in mentored research experiences. In keeping with our first funded cycle, the CICADA REC will select three new RCMAR Scientists each year through a competitive call for pilot applications. Each RCMAR Scientist will conduct a 1-year pilot research project with funding and high-quality, intensive mentoring and training provided by CICDADA REC and established Penn and Penn-affiliated health services researchers and mentors, focusing on aging HSR. CICADA mentors have experience in guiding and nurturing developing investigators from all backgrounds. Once the RCMAR Scientists have completed their 1-year pilot project, they will remain a part of the CICADA community as CICADA Alumni and continue to benefit from CICADA's research training, mentoring, sponsorship, and support, as they develop into successful independent researchers in HSR for aging populations, mentors, and eventual leaders in academia. To meet its goals, the REC has the following Specific Aims (1) To identify, recruit, and select CICADA's RCMAR Scientists and support them in conducting 1-year pilot research projects focused on priority HSR and aging areas of inquiry; (2) To provide CICADA's RCMAR Scientists with structured training and mentorship to become independent health services researchers in aging, ; (3) To foster longstanding relationships with, and continued career development for, CICADA’s current and former RCMAR Scientists.