Bureau of Sages: Incorporation and Translation of Older Adults Voices into Meaningful Research

To resolve the lack of older adults’ voices in research, we will create the Bureau of Sages, a research advisory bureau. It will incorporate older adult voices into the research process and translate that voice into comparative effectiveness research to improve care. Two types of stakeholders will be brought together to form the Bureau: older adults traditionally excluded from research, specifically homebound adults and nursing home residents; and researchers and healthcare professionals. The stakeholders will formally meet together four times a year. Each session will be a half-day retreat at the Lieberman Center for Health and Rehabilitation. Homebound older adults will participate in retreats through the use of real-time, voice-activated technology. Stakeholders will also work on continuous learning and dissemination activities throughout the year. Members of the bureau will serve as champions of older adult participation in the research process.

The projected outputs from this project are the creation of an advisory bureau of older adults to provide voice to the direction, design, and implementation of national research on aging; and the development and implementation of training on how to discuss PCOR/CER, verbalize their expertise to researchers, and translate their experiences into meaningful PCOR using innovative technology to allow homebound and disabled seniors to participate.

Project collaborators include Bureau of Sage stakeholders; a student intern; Lieberman Center for Health & Rehabilitation; Virtual Senior Center; and Northwestern University.