Project Grant R56AG085541

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded a $596,258 Project Grant (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) to Weill Medical College of Cornell University to characterize and predict patient trajectories after live discharge from hospice among older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).

The project aims to apply longitudinal clustering methods to Medicare claims and encounter data to identify patient subgroups with heterogeneous trajectories after hospice live discharge, develop and validate prediction models for patient outcomes, and conduct qualitative interviews to facilitate implementation of the prediction models. The research will leverage data from Medicare fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage, and electronic health records from two large hospices. Sub-awards were provided to researchers at Care Dimensions, Rutgers University, and Visiting Nurse Service of New York to contribute expertise in hospice care, ADRD patient outcomes, and qualitative methods. The project seeks to generate novel evidence to improve patient outcomes after hospice live discharge and inform the development of hospice care models better suited for the end-of-life care needs of ADRD patients.