Kosali Simon, PhD, M.A., a professor with the Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a Regenstrief Institute research scientist; and Katherine Baicker, PhD, University of Chicago provost, will co-lead an expected nearly $16 million National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) program to explore critical aspects of healthcare delivery for individuals living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).
This five-year research initiative aims to identify and address barriers to equitable and effective healthcare for this growing patient population. The initiative will include collaboration with the National Bureau of Economic Research, IU School of Medicine and Regenstrief's IU Center for Aging Research.
Dr. Simon will serve as the project lead for "Provider-Patient/Caregiver Racial Concordance and Equity in Health Care Systems: Their Influence on Health and Healthcare Outcomes for Populations with ADRD," which will examine these relationships between healthcare providers and patients and how they impact healthcare use and health outcomes. Using decades of Medicare data from rural and urban areas, the project explores the prevalence, drivers and effects. The study will compare ambulatory care settings, where patients may choose providers, to emergency departments, where assignments are more random.
Regenstrief research scientists Nicole Fowler, PhD, MHSA, and Jennifer Carnahan, M.D., MPH, M.A., will work alongside Dr. Simon on the research project as co-investigators.
Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, founding director of the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation and the Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science and a research scientist in the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief, also will be a core leader for the project.
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