Epic Innovators Making an Impact on Longevity through Data-Driven Solutions

Leveraging data to inform policy planning and service delivery has been an essential part of governance for decades. It’s a requirement of many state plans to include an unbiased, data-driven report that determines how well programs are working and where performance can be improved. But despite advancements in data collection technology, real challenges remain in creating effective data-driven programs that work across a diverse landscape of services and support providers. Fortunately, Maryland is home to many Epic Innovators who are moving the needle on how data is collected, shared, and analyzed to improve how we serve older adults and support healthy longevity.

Peter Ansong-Manu, MDOA's Data Manager prepares the LRM Data Dashboard for public launch in early 2025. It will visualize the impact of personal demographics, environment, economic considerations, and health characteristics on aging across Maryland counties and communities.

• Academia-driven support empowers local Villages to increase internal data collection capacity: A recent partnership between the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the Maryland Department of Aging (MDOA), and the Washington Area Village Exchange (WAVE) explored practical ways Villages can evaluate internal data collection challenges and improve data collection capabilities over time. Led by Professor Carol Bogash, UMBC’s Entrepreneurial Innovation Leadership class connected students with nine Maryland Villages through WAVE to document their data collection methods and create realistic approaches in evaluating their needs. The result was the development of a data collection toolkit that helps Villages identify where they are in their data collection maturity process and gradually increase their internal capacity to accommodate more data, reduce administrative burden, and improve service delivery. The partnership will continue in the next Design Thinking class, where online data collection application concepts will be further developed. 

• Building bridges between social and clinical service providers will lead to holistic approaches to care for older adults: The Clinical and Community Data Initiative (CODI), is a partnership between the Administration for Community Living, MITRE Corporation, CRISP, MAC, Inc., and Meals on Wheels to share data from local organizations to better understand the impact of services that address health-related social needs. The project will break down silos between key community-based providers to empower local organizations to share and analyze data about social needs, program enrollment, service delivery, and clinical outcomes through open-source technology developed with CRISP, the Maryland Health Information Exchange. The Initiative has built a local infrastructure and will release an implementation playbook in 2025 to encourage broader adoption and data sharing so that more community partners can measure how their services impact clinical and quality-of-life outcomes.

• Comprehensive evaluations of dementia services across the nation will lead to advances in care: Maryland and Virginia have been chosen as target states to launch the State Alzheimer's Research Support Center (StARS), a national data resource and interdisciplinary collaborative network to examine the accessibility, affordability, and effectiveness of coordinated dementia care services across the U.S. MDOA is currently helping to identify stakeholders to participate in the pilot program which will enable comprehensive evaluations of dementia care services across the nation, and lead to the dissemination of best practice approaches in dementia care and policies to support service providers. StARS was developed by faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Center for Equity in Aging in partnership with researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.

• Supporting artificial intelligence innovators to revolutionize data-sharing processes for aging in place: The Johns Hopkins Human Aging Project is promoting innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) technology to improve the health and well-being of older adults through its Artificial Intelligence & Technology Collaboratory for Aging Research. It will provide access to funding and resources to leverage AI in ways that reach a broader range of underserved older adults to improve their ability to remain in their homes as they age, stay connected with others, and reduce or delay dependency. Preliminary program applications are currently being accepted until January 15, 2025.