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Continue to develop standard outcome measures to enable data comparisons across studies, including but not limited to cognitive functioning and physical function and ensure that these measures are validated across a variety of educational, linguistic, and cultural groups.
2030 PAR-15-356: Major Opportunities for Research in Epidemiology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Resilience (R01) RFA-AG-15-015: Enhancing Cross-National Research within the Health and Retirement Study Family Studies (R01) RFA-AG-18-005: The Health and Retirement Study (U01) RFA-NS-17-012: Detecting Cognitive Impairment, Including Dementia, in Primary Care and Other Everyday Clinical Settings for the General Public and in Health Disparities Populations RFA-AG-19-016: High-Priority Behavioral and Social Research Networks in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias PA-18-588: Assistive Technology for Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias and Their Caregivers PA-18-185: Development of Socially-Assistive Robots (SARs) to Engage Persons with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias NSF-18-541: Smart and Connected Health (SCH):Connecting Data, People and Systems RFA-AG-20-022: Aging, Driving and Early Detection of Dementia (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) RFA-AG-23-007: Screening for Cognitive Impairment: Decision-Making (U24 Clinical Trial Optional) RFA-AG-23-021: More Monitoring of Cognitive Change, Continued (M3C3) (U2C Clinical Trial Optional) RFA-AG-24-010: Limited Competition: The Health and Retirement Study and Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (Reissue of RFA-AG-18-005) RFA-AG-24-032: Enhancing Use of Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) RFA-AG-24-035: Limited Competition: The Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) Network (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (Reissue of RFA-AG-19-016) RFA-AG-25-005: Open Measurement Coordinating Network for Non-Pharmacological Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD)Primary Prevention Trials (U24 Clinical Trial Optional) PAR-25-170: Digital Health Technology Derived Biomarkers and Outcome Assessments for Remote Monitoring and Endpoint Development (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional) RFA-AG-25-001: Deriving Common Data Elements from Real-World Data for Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 11.B In Progress Continue to develop standard outcome measures to enable data comparisons across studies... DN 2015 AD Summit: 4B 2017 Dementia Care Summit: 2.5 2018 AD Summit: 6M 2020 Dementia Care Summit: 4.4, 4.6 Relevant 2023 Dementia Care Summit G&Os: 1.2 Blog: The Healthy Cognitive Aging Project: A major data resource for cognitive epidemiology Highlight: Can personality traits predict dementia? Workshop: Clinically Meaningful Outcomes in AD/ADRD Trials Enabling Technologies and Disease Monitoring Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Platform (HCAP) Health Retirement Study: Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol Mexican Health and Aging Study Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (DAD) for Longitudinal Aging Study of India Harmonized Cognitive and Dementia Assessment in China English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) High-Priority Behavioral and Social Research Networks in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias Research Network for the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) THE NIH PRECISION BRAIN HEALTH NETWORK: Open and Inclusive Measurement of Neuropsychological Change for AD/ADRD Primary Prevention Trials
- Develop criteria and methods for screening, testing, and validating new technologies for disease monitoring.
- Launch at least one large longitudinal study evaluating the validity of standard outcome measures across three or more diverse groups. The study should be sufficiently powered to enable the validation of each of the outcome measures within each of the diverse groups.
Summary of Key Accomplishments
NIA supported the development of a state-of-the-art protocol for assessing dementia in large nationally representative samples — called the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) — which is now being implemented in the NIA-funded Health and Retirement Study and multiple international sister studies to facilitate cross-country comparisons. The HCAP enables researchers to measure and understand dementia risk in ongoing longitudinal studies of aging around the world by using methods and content that are as similar as possible. To date, HCAP studies have been completed, and data is available in 12 countries including Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, and the U.S. HCAP studies are underway but have not yet been completed in 11 additional countries including Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ireland, Kenya, Lebanon, Nepal, Northern Ireland, and Pakistan. Between September 2024 and August 2025, updates included new diagnosis variables and survey weights to the 2016 U.S. HRS-HCAP and new data releases from Longitudinal Aging Study in India-Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD); Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy); The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA-Republic of Ireland); the Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA); and Chile-Cog.
NIA’s Mobile Monitoring of Cognitive Change (M2C2) infrastructure is advancing validated, smartphone-based measures of cognition for use in dementia clinical research. The original M2C2 RFA catalyzed development of the Mobile Toolbox for Monitoring Cognitive Function (MTB) , a tool that researchers can use to conduct digital tests of cognition through a smartphone app.
In 2024, NIA announced a funding initiative aimed at launching a national Open Measurement Coordinating Network for Non-Pharmacological AD/ADRD Primary Prevention Trials. NIA awarded the Open Measurement Network Initiative (OMNI AD/ADRD; 1U24AG092760-01) in 2025 to (1) build an inventory of cognitive and functional measures and evaluate them against tiered criteria, (2) develop, adapt, and validate measures to fill critical gaps, (3) create an open, multi-provider measurement infrastructure deployable across platforms, and (4) partner with stakeholders to ensure measures are widely adopted and used in AD/ADRD primary prevention trials that incorporate new targets for intervention.
The key accomplishments summary is current as of September 2025.