Telemedicine for nursing home residents with Alzheimer's and related dementias
Official title: The Use of Telemedicine in the Care of Nursing Home Residents with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias after National Telemedicine Expansion in 2020
Funded at Brown University · NIH-11363485 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how telemedicine helps nursing home residents with Alzheimer's and related dementias get medical and specialty care without risky transfers.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brown University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Providence, United States) |
| Project start | April 1, 2022 |
| Project end | January 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $347,466 |
| NIH project number | 7R01AG075507-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11363485 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
The focus is on Medicare-covered nursing home residents diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related dementias.
✕Less likely to help
People who live at home, do not have dementia, or are in facilities that never adopted telemedicine are unlikely to see direct benefits from this work.
What this research studies
Researchers will use national Medicare billing records and nursing home assessment data (the Minimum Data Set) from before and after the 2020 telemedicine policy change to track who received telemedicine and what happened afterward. They will compare facilities and residents that used telemedicine to those that did not and follow outcomes like emergency department transfers, specialty visits (neurology, psychiatry), and other clinical events. The work uses existing records across the United States rather than in-person visits, so most residents would be included through their routine care data. The team will analyze patterns over time to see whether wider telemedicine use changed care for people with dementia.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could show that telemedicine reduces unnecessary emergency transfers and improves access to specialty care for nursing home residents with dementia.
How similar studies have gone: Smaller studies and local programs have suggested telemedicine can improve access and reduce transfers, but large national analyses focused on residents with dementia remain limited.
Where this research is happening
-
Brown University
Providence, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Barnett, Michael Lawrence — Brown University
- Study coordinator: Barnett, Michael Lawrence
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.