This $1,933,556 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) under its Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866) will support research to assess the impact of hospital-based health information technology (hospital-HIT) on healthcare quality and equity for patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).
The primary awardee, the University of Maryland, College Park, will conduct a ten-year longitudinal study to evaluate how hospital-HIT systems that promote care coordination, patient engagement, and data integration affect outcomes like hospital readmissions, preventable emergency department visits, and preventable hospitalizations for ADRD patients, including racial and ethnic minorities. The study will also examine the impact of hospital-HIT on healthcare disparities and quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Massachusetts are participating as sub-awardees on the project.
The goal of this research is to provide policymakers with evidence on how to design and implement HIT systems to better serve the changing care needs of ADRD patients and reduce healthcare inequities for this population, including during public health emergencies.