Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (administrative supplement to 5K23HL171951, Adaptation and pilot testing of a family-centered intervention to improve long-

This is an application for a five-year mentored patient-oriented research career development award (K23). The overall goals are to 1) adapt and pilot test a family-centered intervention designed to improve long-term outcomes for survivors of acute respiratory failure, and 2) educate and mentor the candidate clinician investigator while she transitions to independence. The candidate is an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She recently completed a three-year award period on UNC’s KL2 during which she generated key preliminary data to inform this proposal. The members of her mentoring team have an established record of mentoring junior faculty, high research productivity, and substantial peer-reviewed support. Her mentoring and advisory team includes experts in ICU patient and family caregiver outcomes (Carson), palliative care (Hanson), communication and decision-making support in the ICU and after ICU discharge (Cox), support of patients and caregivers during care transitions (Toles), and psychiatry (Gaines), clinical psychology (Trivedi) as well as a dedicated biostatistician (Lin). The research and training environment at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is strong and well established. UNC is a national leader in research, with over $1 billion in extramural support in fiscal year 2020. UNC-Chapel Hill faculty researchers receive more than $528 million in NIH research funding annually, and UNC is first in the nation for federally funded social and behavioral science research and development. The candidate’s career development objectives are as follows: 1) To gain skills and experience in the development and adaptation of behavioral health interventions; 2) To obtain training and experience in conducting randomized clinical trials; and 3) To gain proficiency in best practices for virtual participant engagement and intervention delivery. To achieve these goals, the candidate will: 1) participate in advanced, graduate level coursework; 2) gain experiential learning as a co-investigator on a multi-site randomized clinical trial of family support intervention; 3) attend The North Carolina Translational & Clinical Sciences Principal Investigator Development Series and join the R-Writing Group; and 4) conduct mentor guided research. The specific aims of the research project are: 1) To adapt the Self-Management Using Collaborative Coping Enhancement in Diseases (SUCCEED) intervention, a family-centered coping skills intervention for seriously ill patients and their family caregivers, for use in acute respiratory failure (end product: SUCCEED-ICU); and 2) To test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of SUCCEED-ICU in a pilot randomized trial. The support and mentorship provided by a K23 is critical to achieve the candidate’s goal of transitioning to an independent clinician investigator in the field of improving long-term outcomes for patients who have experienced acute respiratory failure.