EXTERNAL RESEARCH RESOURCES SUPPORT AND DISSEMINATION CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This new proposed Core will support the work of the ?Collaborative for Innovation in Data & Measurement in Aging? (CIDMA) a collaboration of researchers at the University of Chicago (UChicago) Center for Healthy Aging Behaviors and Longitudinal InvestigationS (CHABLIS) and the Duke Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA). This Collaborative Core will identify, design, conduct and assess innovations in data collection and measurement for use in current and future data-focused studies of aging. These innovations in data collection and measurement will be focused on the following issues: (a) adapting methods for measuring cognition and brain functioning from laboratory to field settings; (b) extending place-based studies of activities of individuals and their consequences for health and well-being from urban to rural settings; and (c) assessing ways to improve the collection of survey data and data from health records in both hospital- and population- based settings, with special emphasis on developing methods to improve subject recruitment and retention and the use of adaptive consenting processes to establish trust. The assessments conducted by CIDMA will have rapid turnaround, from design to dissemination of its findings (thus, we refer to them as Rapid Assessments). These Rapid Assessments will be focused on developing measures and methods that are cost-effective and that can be implemented in a range of settings, especially those ?in the field? for population-based studies. The members of CIDMA will work collaboratively on these tasks, drawing on both their particular expertise and experience in data collection in studies of aging. This Core also will disseminate and educate the research community on its findings. It will maintain an on-going dissemination effort of its findings and create a dialogue between researchers and survey operations professionals, and their application to existing and future studies. This Core also will conduct two summer institutes and an end-of-project symposium/workshop to train and educate the next generation of researchers and data collection professionals in the study of aging.
