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Current Research

ARLENE ASH

Title: Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Research Design Component (BERD) of the Clinical and Translational Science Award
Major Goals: To transform the conduct of clinical and translational research by providing an “academic home” for university clinical investigators at UMass Chan Medical School. The UMCCTS provides robust pilot grant programs, comprehensive education and career development programs, and innovative core facilities to support and nurture clinical investigators.
PIs: Katherine Luzuriaga/Arlene Ash
Source of Support: NIH/NCATS

Title: The Effects of Accountable Care Organizations on Disparities in Childhood Asthma Care and Outcomes
Major Goals: To determine the impact of accountable care organization implementation on quality of care, health outcomes, and disparities for children insured by Medicaid in Massachusetts, exploring both overall effects and variations based on organizational structures.
PI: Sarah Goff
Source of Support: UMass Amherst/NIH

Title: Social Determinants of Health Payment Model Development
Short Description/Major Goals: To create new managed care payment models, write reports, and offer help as requested, including communicating findings and methods to MassHealth leadership and the public.
PI: Arlene Ash
Source of Support: MassHealth

Title: 2017-2022 Massachusetts 1115 Waiver Independent Evaluation
Short Description/Major Goals: Perform work as the CMS-designated Independent Evaluator for MassHealth’s 2017-2022 1115 Waiver, focused on understanding the effects (on cost, quality, and member satisfaction) of transitioning most MassHealth beneficiaries into accountable care organizations (ACOs).
PI: Jay Himmelstein
Source of support: Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Title: 2022-2027 Massachusetts 1115 Waiver Independent Evaluation
Short Description/Major Goals: A CMS-required mixed methods evaluation of large-scale reforms to Massachusetts Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (MassHealth) implemented during the 2022-2027 Massachusetts 1115 Waiver Demonstration.
PIs: Matthew Alcusky/Elaine Wang
Source of support: Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Title: Structural Racism and Engagement of Family Caregivers in Serious Illness Care
Short Description/Major Goals: To examine the influence of neighborhood-level caregiver resources and hospital-level practices on intensity of caregiver engagement for hospitalized patients with serious illness and its impact on outcomes of care near the end of life.
PIs: Jennifer Tjia/Susan DeSanto-Madeya
Source of support: NIH

Title: Medicare for All
Short Description/Major Goals: To explore the financial impact of transitioning to a single payer (Medicare for All) system, paying Medicare rates, on safety net and other hospitals in Massachusetts.
PI: Arlene Ash/Eric Mick
Source of support: UMass Memorial Health Care

Title: Safety, Acceptability, Feasibility, and Effectiveness of Rehabilitation at Home (SAFER-at-Home): A randomized controlled trial
Short Description/Major Goals: Conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the safety, acceptance, feasibility, and effectiveness of a “post-acute care (PAC) at Home” model as an alternative to seeking discharge to a skilled nursing facility.
PIs: Apurv Soni/Peter Lindenauer
Source of support: Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Title: Impact of Medically Tailored Meals on Obesity, Other Health Outcomes and Healthcare Utilization under Medicaid Flexible Services
Major Goals: This study will evaluate the impact of medically tailored meals programs developed by Medicaid accountable care organizations (ACOs) in partnership with a local social service organization on several key outcomes.
PIs: Mozaffarian/ Alcusky
Source of Support: Tufts/NIH R01

JONGGYU BAEK

Title: Antidementia medication use, safety, and effectiveness among nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease
Short Description/Major Goals: Examine the use, safety, and effectiveness of antidementia medications for a contemporary national cohort of older nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease using the federally-mandated Minimum Data Set 3.0 linked to Medicare Part A and D claims: 1) examine patterns of antidementia and psychotropic medication use among these residents; 2) compare long-term effectiveness, safety, and survival between alternative antidementia medication treatment regimens; and 3) identify characteristics of residents with Alzheimer’s disease for whom treatment with a specific antidementia medication regimen confers a net clinical benefit.
PI: Matthew Alcusky
Source of support: NIH/NIAG

Title: Helping Youth on the Path to Employment (HYPE) 2.0
Short Description/Major Goals: To provide educational support, or to improve the quality of services, to better assist transition-aged youth and young adults with mental health conditions to develop their careers.
PI: Michelle Mullen
Source of support: DHHS/NIDILRR

Title: Interpretation and Utility of Novel Composite Structural Endpoints of Cumulative Damage and Disease Activity in Knee Osteoarthritis
Short Description/Major Goals: To determine how much change in two novel measures of disease progression translates to clinically meaningful improvement or worsening and receiving a knee replacement and test the performance of each outcome using a virtual clinical trial.
PI: Jeffrey Driban
Source of support: NIH/NIAMS

BRUCE BARTON

Title: Clinical and Translational Science Award
Short Description/Major Goals: The University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) works to transform the conduct of clinical and translational research by providing an “academic home” for all university clinical investigators. The UMCCTS provides robust pilot grant programs, comprehensive education and career development programs, and innovative core facilities to support and nurture clinical investigators.
PI: Katherine Luzuriaga
Source of support: NIH/NCATS

Title: A study program to evaluate Cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission and immune correlates of viral shedding in young children within daycare settings
Short Description/Major Goals: To test the feasibility and most effective approach for clinical studies in daycare centers and build a network of daycare centers with optimal CMV prevalence and other key demographic features for measuring CMV transmission.
PI: Laura Gibson
Source of support: Moderna

Title: Team Support to Improve Glycemic Control Using CGM in Diverse Populations (TEAM CGM)
Short Description/Major Goals: To evaluate pharmacist and community health worker support in continuous glucose monitoring within a diverse population with type 2 diabetes in the primary care setting.
PI: Ben Gerber
Source of support: NIH/NCI

Title: The Center for Accelerating Practices to End Suicide through Technology Translation (CAPES)
Short Description/Major Goals: CAPES identifies and systematically studies the best evidence-based suicide care technologies to learn key strategies for getting them into the hands of clinicians, patients, and families. The improved ability to identify and monitor suicide risk and provide high-quality care for individuals identified as at-risk will reduce suicide attempts and suicide.
PI: Edwin Boudreaux/Catarina Kiefe
Source of support: NIH

Title: Evaluating Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for AUD and Trauma
Short Description/Major Goals: Although there are several treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in hearing populations, none have been developed for or tested with Deaf clients. To address these barriers, our team developed Signs of Safety, a Deaf-accessible therapy toolkit for treating AUD and PTSD. The major goal of this project is to conduct a nationwide, virtual clinical trial to compare (1) Signs of Safety with (2) treatment as usual and (3) a no treatment control, to collect data on clinical outcomes, and to explore potential mediators and moderators of outcome.
PI: Melissa Anderson
Source of support: NIH

Title: Safety, Acceptability, Feasibility, and Effectiveness of Rehabilitation at Home (SAFER-at-Home): A randomized controlled trial
Short Description/Major Goals: Conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the safety, acceptance, feasibility, and effectiveness of a “PAC at Home” model as an alternative to seeking discharge to a skilled nursing facility.
PIs: Apurv Soni/Peter Lindenauer
Source of support: Commonwealth of Massachusetts

ERIC MICK

SHARINA PERSON:

Title: CORE-ARP
Short Description/Major Goals: To continue to support the UMass Worcester Prevention Research Center (PRC), located at the University of Massachusetts Worcester. The UMass Worcester PRC serves as 1) The hub of community public health research at UMass Worcester; 2) An integral part of the fabric of Greater Worcester’s collaborative public health system; 3) A research partner that addresses real-world challenges across Worcester, MA, the state of Massachusetts and beyond; and 4) A national leader in real-world prevention research
PIs: Stephenie Lemon/Milagros Rosal
Source of support: CDC

Title: PR-OUTLOOK: PR Young Adults Stress Contextual, Behavioral, & Cardiometabolic Risk
Short Description/Major Goals: To fill knowledge gaps regarding the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) behavioral and cardiometabolic risk factors and overall cardiovascular health (CVH) among young adults in Puerto Rico and ascertain their psychosocial (individual and neighborhood-level) and sociodemographic determinants. We will establish an island-wide cohort of 3,000 young adults (18-29 years old) using a multi-stage sampling of probabilistic plus community approaches; conduct comprehensive assessments (survey, anthropometric, physiological); and establish a biorepository (blood, hair, saliva, urine) for future longitudinal studies of CVD risk, CVH, and mechanisms.
PI: Milagros Rosal
Source of support: NIH

Title: Adapt2Quit – A Machine-Learning, Adaptive Motivational System: RCT for Socio-Economically Disadvantaged smokers
Short Description/Major Goals: To test (among socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers) Adapt2Quit — an innovative motivational texting “recommender system.” Adapt2Quit enhances tailored motivational messaging systems using machine-learning algorithms to learn from, and adapt to, user feedback (prior and daily message ratings), to increase the personal relevance of messages.
PI: Rajani Sadasivam
Source of support: NIH

Title: Pathways to Perinatal Mental Health Equity (Pathways)
Short Description/Major Goals: To conduct a Hybrid Type I Comparative Effectiveness Study, including a cluster RCT to compare a healthcare system-only approach to addressing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, the PRogram In Support of Moms (PRISM), to a Healthcare-Community partnership. We will also conduct a process evaluation to evaluate implementation strategies. We will simultaneously test 1) the effectiveness of evidence-based practices and 2) implementation strategies at the health care system and community levels.
PIs: Nancy Byatt/Wendy Davis
Source of support: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

BO WANG

Title: National Implementation of Focus on Youth in The Caribbean (FOYC) and Caribbean Informed Parents and Children Together (CImPACT) in The Bahamas: implementation strategies and improved outcomes.
Short Description/Major Goals: To develop theory-driven implementation strategies to increase sustained teacher implementation fidelity, and thereby increase the public health impact of evidence-based interventions in schools.
PI: Bo Wang
Source of support: NIH/NICHD

Title: Exploring sustained implementation and fidelity of an evidence-based HIV prevention program
Short Description/Major Goals: To investigate implementation trajectories among teachers and multi-level determinants influencing the sustainability of HIV behavioral interventions integrated into the existing curriculum across the government school system in The Bahamas.
PI: Bo Wang
Source of support: NIH/NIMH

Title: Adapting effective mHealth interventions to improve uptake and adherence of the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Thai young MSM (men who have sex with men)
Short Description/Major Goals: To develop a technology-facilitated intervention combining Motivational Enhancement System for PrEP Uptake and Adherence (MES-PrEP) and Motivational Text Messaging (MTM) to increase uptake of and sustained adherence to PrEP among HIV-negative, Thai young MSM.
PI: Bo Wang (contact) and Nittaya Phanuphak (MPI)
Source of support: NIH/NICHD

Title: Optimizing an mHealth intervention to improve uptake and adherence of the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Thai young transgender women
Short Description/Major Goals: To develop a mobile, technology-delivered intervention program designed to improve PrEP use among young transgender women in Thailand, using the Computerized Intervention Authoring Software (CIAS) system
PI: Bo Wang (contact), Nittaya Phanuphak (MPI), Karen MacDonell (MPI)
Source of support: NIH/NIDA

Title: Adapting mHealth interventions to improve self-management of HIV and substance use among emerging adults in Zambia
Short Description/Major Goals: To develop and implement a multi-component, mHealth intervention to improve HIV self-management and reduce substance use among emerging adults in Zambia.
PI: Bo Wang (contact) and Karen MacDonell (MPI)
Source of support: NIH/NHLBI

Title: Conquering Hypertension in Urban Vietnam
Short Description/Major Goals: This Hybrid Type II effectiveness-implementation trial aims to comprehensively evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a multi-level, integrated intervention while simultaneously assessing implementation outcomes when delivered across primary care settings for patients with hypertension in urban Vietnam.
PI: Hoa Nguyen (Contact), Bo Wang(MPI), Oahn Tran (MPI)
Source of support: NIH

CHENGWU YANG

Title: Pathways to Oral Health Among Low-income Pregnant Urban Women
Short Description/Major Goals: To identify the pathways (mechanisms) by which sex and gender-related factors lead to behavior and clinical and patient-reported oral health outcomes among pregnant women with oral disease.
PI: Stefanie Russell
Source of support: NIH/Rutgers

CHAN ZHOU

Title: Integrative analysis of multi-omics data to identify and characterize long noncoding (lnc) RNA-involved fusions in pediatric cancer
Short Description/Major Goals: To integrate machine learning and computational approaches to identify and characterize lnc-fusions in pediatric cancer using multi-omics data from the Common Fund Datasets (Gabriella Miller Kids First, GTEx, and 4DNucleome) and external databases (GEO and TCGA).
PI: Chan Zhou
Source of support: NIH