Enhancing Independence in Elders with Serious Illness

The Mount Sinai OAIC’s innovative mission is to stimulate, develop, and fund research directed at improving the quality of life and independence of older adults with serious illness, their families, and other care partners. Over the past 14 years of existence, the OAIC has emerged as a key contributor in the movement to improve quality of care for the sickest patients in our nation’s healthcare system. We have: 1) created a new generation of geriatric palliative care researchers who are addressing the most pressing problems of our most vulnerable patients; 2) enhanced the evidence base for improving quality of life and independence in seriously ill older adults and their care partners through innovative and cutting-edge research; and 3) created a national network of geriatric palliative care researchers. The objectives of this renewal application are to: 1) Enhance the needed geriatric palliative care research workforce by identifying, recruiting, and training leaders in aging and palliative care research; 2) Support the needed geriatric palliative care research infrastructure through 3 resource cores; 3) Advance research methodologies through Research Core Developmental Projects with a specific focus on reducing healthcare disparities; and 4) Provide national leadership in geriatric palliative care research. We approach the work of advancing research in geriatric palliative care and its translation by considering the full range of translational research and through a comprehensive framework of connected and coordinated activities that starts with creating a pipeline of trainees, supporting their research development, providing infrastructure and resources for research, nurturing and facilitating collaborative research, and ends with targeted efforts to disseminate the work to improve the life of older persons and their families. We bring together research resources at Mount Sinai, engage other experts in the region, and leverage a national network of experts and trainees through our collaborations with other OAICs, ADCRs, and the new NIH palliative care consortium. To amplify the OAIC’s impact, we propose three cross-cutting themes focused on dementia, the often-neglected and final step of translational research—the adoption of the findings of research into practice, and health disparities. By strategically leveraging local and national resources and building on other successful programs, the OAIC proposes to maximize its impact by creating a Center that is comprehensive in scope, significant in its local impact, and national in its reach.