The American Medical Directors Association Foundation and Pfizer have partnered to sponsor the Quality Improvement Awards, a program designed to encourage the development of innovative projects that will help to make a distinct impact on the quality of long term care.Types of Projects SupportedThe Awards will support initiatives that focus on facility staff education, quality improvement programs, research on interventions and treatment, and health literacy to directly enhance the quality of care provided to patients in Long Term Care settings.Proposals may be submitted for a general Quality Improvement project or in any one of the five therapeutic areas listed below. The therapeutic areas are: pain management, dementia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or urinary incontinence.Education * Proposals in this category should focus on facility staff education and/or training programs. Due to a current Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grant on assessment of Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) implementation, the Foundation will not fund projects related to implementation of AMDA CPGs.Quality Improvement Programs * Proposals should focus on training and mentoring facilities or organizations in continuous quality improvement (CQI) or specific QI projects covering areas of interest to the Foundation.Research Projects * Research projects should be approximately one year in length and conducted in a single facility. Results should be generalizable. * Examples could include an investigation into the characteristics of residents in the long term care setting whose weight loss is unavoidable, or a study looking at critical factors with hearing aid use.Health Literacy * Health literacy projects should focus on ways to enhance improving healthcare communications between long term care patients and their family/caregivers/surrogates. Devising such systems are particularly important given the diminished literacy skills, cognitive capacity and communication skills of many long term care residents, especially those with dementia. * Examples could include projects that focus on the following: innovative ways to communicate given literacy and functional limitations (e.g., cognitive impairment, hearing or vision loss); different strategies for communicating given technological advances (e.g., e-mail, video-conferencing); and, methods of communicating with patients and families surrounding functional and disease-focused issues, taking into consideration diminished literacy skills and cultural differences.AwardsAwards of $10,000-$15,000 each will be made to three winners in this competition to support their projects. Two awards will support Quality Improvement projects focusing on one of the five therapeutic areas, and the third award will support a General Quality Improvement project. Awards are intended to cover salary support, consultant fees, materials, and travel to the AMDA Annual Symposium to present project results.Application ProcedureThe application deadline is October 31, 2008. The AMDA Foundation/Pfizer QI Application must be completed and submitted online through our online application process. Note that registration is required since this online application involves submitting and uploading documents in electronic form.
AMDA Foundation.11000 Broken Land Parkway · Suite 405 · Columbia, MD 21044Phone: 410-992-3134 · Fax: 410-740-1318
Institute for Neuroacanthocytosis Research Grants We encourage applications for research grants for investigations into the genetics, diagnostics and epidemiology of the NA syndromes as well as the pathophysiology and the related red blood cell abnormalities. Neuroacanthocytosis syndromes are a group of rare diseases, characterised by misshaped erythrocytes and progressive neurodegeneration, causing movement disorders and neuropsychiatric symptoms. The rarity and wide geographical spread of the NA diseases have contributed to a number of different researchers principally in Europe and Japan pursuing specific studies of the elements of the NA phenotypes including descriptive history of the development of the disease, the abnormalities of the erthrocytes and the function of the VPS 13A protein that is absent in chorea-acanthocytosis. Since acanthocytosis is part of the NA syndromes clinical manifestations, the study of acanthocytes may offer the possibility to progress in the disease’ knowledge, to identify new cell signalling pathways towards either membrane proteins or transport systems.
Our Objectives for Research To pursue the fundamental physiological questions raised by NA including the: role of the proteins affected by the mutated genes in each disease as well as their molecular and cellular function cause and significance of the spiky red blood cell membranes that are a defining characteristic of the diseases pathway that leads to neuronal apoptosis in each of the diseases To promote wide collaboration in the clinical study of the diseases. Because no country has more than an estimated 100 cases of NA and most countries in the world have fewer than 10 cases, it is vital that case histories of patients from around the world be available to those studying the clinical aspects of the diseases. To develop the tools and the skill of neurologists to diagnose and, in the future, to treat the diseases. To collaborate effectively with research into other similar conditions especially Huntington’s disease. To encourage new, promising projects with seed money and assist in approaching larger grantors.
Our Values Our funding seeks to: Promote basic, curiosity-driven, investigator–led research that relates to the phenotypes of the NA diseases. Bring together the wide research community around the world including haematology, cell biology, neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. Encourage the wide dissemination of and free access to the research we support. We will seek to support unrestricted access and the public benefit wherever possible by requiring electronic copies of any research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and are supported by the Advocacy to be deposited into PubMed Central (PMC) to be made freely available as soon as possible and in any event within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication. Do every thing possible to have strong communication with researchers receiving grants to assure that funds are used for the intended purpose. Promote good communications between those working on NA research and others concerned with other diseases of the basal ganglia.
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