A National Institute on Aging (NIA) and Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) initiative helped to recruit more veterans for Alzheimer’s research. The program, INviting Veterans InTo Enrollment in Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (INVITE-ADRC), provided funding for five sites and cross-site collaboration. A total of 172 veterans were placed in a research registry for clinical studies; 99 were enrolled in ADRC research studies.
The main objective of the initiative was to develop a pilot program to identify effective and sustainable strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of veterans in NIA-funded ADRD clinical research studies. It also aimed to explore the efficacy of a collaborative effort between two federal agencies in identifying and addressing systemic issues at each individual site.
The sites used included Cleveland Clinic/University Hospitals of Cleveland (partnered with VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System); Mount Sinai Hospital (Bronx VAMC); Stanford University (VA Palo Alto Health Care System); University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco VAMC); and the University of Wisconsin (William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital). Referral sources included mailings, self and physician referrals, virtual and in-person outreach, podcasts, video projects and advertisements.
The project yielded fruit. VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System recruited 50 individuals for their video project and enrolled five in the Cleveland ADRC. Mount Sinai Hospital sent out 259 recruitment letters and received 80 responses; 35 were enrolled. The Stanford ADRC held one in-person outreach event and 22 remote events and reached a total of 481 individuals. The UCSF ADRC recruited 21 veterans; 11 were recruited into the UCSF ADRC and military exposome project. The University of Wisconsin recruited 48 individuals, and 15 were enrolled in the Wisconsin ADRC.
