Federal Grant Award Summary

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey's School of Nursing received a $237,489 Project Grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846), effective June 1, 2026, with a completion date of April 30, 2029. The award funds the Study to Probe and Assess Registry-Claims Linkage for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (SPARCLE-JIA), which will create and evaluate a linked dataset combining clinical data from the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Registry with healthcare claims data from the Komodo National Claims Database covering over 50,000 children and youth diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

The primary deliverables include a comprehensive analysis comparing patient characteristics between linked and unlinked registry and claims datasets, validation studies examining the accuracy of linked data for clinical outcomes such as uveitis and infection-related hospitalizations, and proof-of-concept research investigating the relationship between biologic drug dispensing delays and disease activity. SPARCLE-JIA employs advanced analytical approaches to address critical data gaps in pediatric rheumatology research by integrating detailed clinical measures and patient-reported outcomes from the registry with population-based healthcare utilization and medication dispensing data from claims databases, thereby enabling more rigorous and broadly applicable observational and interventional clinical studies on JIA management and treatment efficacy.