Translating Innovation to Impact

White Paper

This white paper presents the findings and recommendations from a review of the state of the art non-pharmacological treatments and care practices for people with Alzheimer's or other dementias and their family caregivers. It is intended to support deliberations by the Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care and Services, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and other government and private organizations about how to make effective non-pharmacological treatments and care practices available to people who will benefit from then. Its development resulted from a public-private partnership between AoA and the Alliance for Aging Research, with funding from the Metlife Foundation. To read the white paper, click here.

Meeting Overview

On June 28, 2012 the Alliance for Aging Research and its project partner the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), convened Translating Innovation to Impact, a one-day working meeting to review the state of research into evidence-based interventions to help people with Alzheimer’s remain healthy and independent in the community while reducing the stress on their caregivers.

Forty invited participants attended the meeting, including researchers, providers, and federal staff responsible for research on evidence-based interventions and their translation to practice for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In addition to the Alliance for Aging Research and AoA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, AARP, the Family Caregiver Alliance, and the National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities, were represented at the meeting among many others.

Nine presentations were given during the meeting. These presentations described interventions that are currently in various stages of implementation, evaluation, translation, and expansion into community practice, including:

•two that are in the initial stages of implementation and evaluation;

•seven that have been shown to have positive results in one or more randomized clinical trials (RCTs); five of these are now being tested in translation projects, and two are available in a few health care systems and communities; and

•two that have been shown to have positive results in RCTs which have not yet been published; one is now being evaluated in a translation project, and one is available in a few health care systems.

Discussion that followed these presentations focused on barriers to the development, delivery, and use of effective interventions for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their family caregivers and recommended steps to overcome those barriers. These discussions were led by representatives from AoA, the Alliance for Aging Research and other meeting participants.

Click to view the meeting agenda and pre-reads.

Watch the event video.

This project was sponsored by: