Rosa R. Baier, M.P.H., leads the Brown University School of Public Health's Center for Long-Term Care Quality & Innovation (Q&I), which conducts pragmatic research to test and disseminate effective interventions to improve care for older adults. Ms. Baier and her team have particularly deep relationships with and a strong focus on nursing homes and assisted living communities, which leverage a collaborative relationship with the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), an association representing two-thirds of the country's nursing homes. Q&I's diverse research portfolio ranges from small-scale feasibility studies to large-scale trials. It includes the NIA-funded IMPACT Collaboratory, which is expanding national capacity to conduct pragmatic research of non-drug dementia interventions that improve care for persons living with dementia and their caregivers.
Prior to launching Q&I in 2015, Ms. Baier spent 14 years focusing on implementation and quality measurement, including leading CMS nursing home projects and Rhode Island's public reporting program. She is currently PI or co-I on numerous pragmatic studies, where she focuses on improvement and implementation science using mixed methods. Collectively, her experience informs her understanding of how to engage provider partners and how to design and measure interventions that are feasible and acceptable under real-world conditions. These perspectives are reflected in the Readiness Assessment for Pragmatic Trials (RAPT), a model that she and her colleagues published in 2019 to help interventionists assess an intervention’s strengths and weaknesses in preparation for a pragmatic trial. Ms. Baier completed her graduate training with Dr. Vincent Mor at Brown.