WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) is celebrating the recent publication of work from the Long-Term Care (LTC) Data Cooperative in a leading journal for clinical aging research, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS). The special article, “
Characteristics of the Long-Term Care Data Cooperative: A New Resource for Research on Outcomes in Long-Term Care,” showcases the quality and breadth of LTC resident population data available via the LTC Data Cooperative.
The LTC Data Cooperative is a profession-led resource that gathers electronic health records (EHR) data from participating skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and assisted living communities across the country for the principal purposes of public health surveillance and comparative effective research. The initiative is governed by AHCA/NCAL in partnership with the IMPACT Collaboratory at Brown University, Hebrew Senior Life, and New York University, and is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
“This is a reflection and validation of the mission of the LTC Data Cooperative to advance quality care by making clinical data accessible and actionable,”
said Dr. Elizabeth Burns, AHCA/NCAL’s chief medical officer. “We’re immensely grateful to the team who has been working diligently to expand the LTC Data Cooperative, the providers and EHR vendors who have volunteered to support this effort, and the researchers who use the data to generate new insights to improve resident care.”
The LTC Data Cooperative began as a response to challenges providers and the nation faced during the COVID-19 pandemic due to limited evidence available to clinicians about infection transmission and vaccine effectiveness in long term care populations. It grew out of the NIA-funded IMPACT Collaboratory at Brown University that collaborated with 12 large LTC organizations to study EHR data from skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic. The LTC Data Cooperative allows researchers to compare outcomes from all different types of treatments and programs for LTC populations using anonymized, securely held health record data.
“Electronic health record data have the significant advantage of daily clinical granularity that enables measurement of resident status, care processes, and outcomes that cannot be examined using other existing data sources,”
writes lead author and Executive Director of the LTC Data Cooperative Stephanie Kissam. “Studies using these data offer significant potential to expand the existing evidence base on this population, which historically has often been excluded from clinical trials.”
Studies currently approved to use data from the LTC Data Cooperative include how SNF residents are affected by differential access to vision care and institutional special needs plans. The results from these studies will help to inform clinical practice and policy, the authors note.
The LTC Data Cooperative continues to enroll SNF and AL providers across the country who wish to participate.
To read the full article in JAGS, click
HERE.
For more information on the LTC Data Cooperative, click
HERE.