DoD Peer Reviewed Alzheimers Transforming Diagnosis Award

The TrDA is intended to improve diagnosis now. Proposed projects must build knowledge, capacity, technology, and/or research to reduce or overcome important barriers to obtaining a diagnosis, meaningful disease monitoring, and accurate prognosis. Barriers could include, but are not limited to, technologies, cost, equitable patient access, applicability, structural and social determinants of health, clinical implementation, relationship to clinical outcome measures, biomarker validation, lack of longitudinal data to inform prediction/prognosis, and more. The investigator must clearly attune their project to provide true benefit to people living with AD/ADRD diagnoses and their families. All applications submitted to this funding opportunity must clearly indicate how the project addresses an important barrier, explain how the research will be representative of the population it intends to benefit, and demonstrate cultural competence. Culturally competent research factors the cultural background and diversity of the intended beneficiaries of the research outcomes when developing research ideas, conducting research, and implementing the research findings. Cultural competency in research is critical in reducing health disparities and enhancing the quality and impact of research by ensuring inclusivity, understanding, and responsiveness to the needs of diverse populations.Key elements of this award mechanism are: Clear pathway to applicability: To meet the intent of this mechanism, applications should be focused on a clear pathway to clinical applicability. Proposed projects should identify and begin to address gaps limiting advances in equitable, accessible, and rapid diagnosis and/or prognosis. Gaps may include but are not limited to technologies, state of the science, health equity, biomarker applicability, and more. Applications that do not clearly delineate how the proposed project addresses and/or overcomes barriers to accessible and viable diagnosis and/or prognosis do not meet the intent of this mechanism. Non-incremental advance: Proposed research should demonstrate an appreciable advance on the current state of the field. As such, preliminary data are required. Person-focused research: For diagnostic/prognostic outcomes proposed by the research to be successful, those impacted by AD/ADRD diagnoses need to buy into the approach. This means researchers should design their projects to focus on the people who need the outcomes most and partner with them. For the FY24 PRARP TrDA, inclusion of Community collaboration is required for all projects.The proposed project should leverage existing resources, where possible, and must ensure the advances proposed by the project aims are representative and applicable to diverse populations, especially including women. Careful consideration of equitable, representative inclusion of the study populations is essential to ensuring AD/ADRD diagnostic or prognostic solutions are of benefit to all and that this is a high priority for the program.For this mechanism, the investigator will host a Community meeting with a facilitated discussion, to occur within the first three quarters of the period of performance, that will help inform the execution of the research. This meeting should involve the intended research population and their Community. The intent of this meeting is to gather feedback and input that will inform the execution of the research, optimize and refine research questions and execution as well as help inform the dissemination strategy of the research outcomes. Optimizing research impact through Community collaboration: Research funded by the FY24 PRARP should be responsive to the needs of persons with AD/ADRD lived experience, family, and/or care provider communities (referred to as Community/ies from hereon in the Funding Opportunity). Establishment and utilization of effective and equitable collaborations and partnerships maximizes the near-term translational and impact potential of the proposed research. Collaborative research approaches feature shared responsibility and ownership for the research project to ensure fully integrated involvement of Community members within the research team. Collaborative research approaches such as Community-based participatory research, participatory action research, and integrated knowledge transition generate partnerships between scientific researchers and Community members to create knowledge useable by both sets of stakeholders. Recognizing the strengths of each partner, scientific researchers and Community members must collaborate and contribute their expertise equitably on all aspects of the project, which may include needs assessment, planning, research intervention design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. Research results are jointly interpreted, disseminated, fed back to affected communities, and may be translated into interventions or policy. These methods are critically important for Community-level interventions and can also augment the potential impact of a research program on people living with dementia, their families, and/or their care partners.These collaborative relationships are often established through integrating Community members into research teams as co-researchers, advisors, and consultants. Some examples for Community collaborations include: o Lived Experience Consultation: The research team includes at least one project advisor with AD/ADRD experience who will integrate with the research team to provide consultation throughout the planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research project. Lived experience consultants (LECs) may include individuals with AD/ADRD, their family members, care partners/caregivers, or others as appropriate.o Partnership with a Community-Based Organization: The research team establishes partnerships with at least one Community-based organization that provides consultation throughout the planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research project. Community-based organizations may include advocacy groups, service providers, policymakers, or other formal organizational stakeholders.o Community Advisory Board (CAB): A CAB is composed of multiple Community stakeholders and can take many forms, from a board of LECs to a coalition of Community-based organizations or any combination thereof. As with LECs and organizational partners, the CAB provides consultation throughout the planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research project.