Heller School receives $25 million grant to study elder care
Photo Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel
March 10, 2026
Karen Donelan ScD (left) and Jennifer Perloff PhD
Picture a primary care visit with an 80-year-old managing five medications, early memory loss and a daughter who drove two hours to be there. The appointment lasts fifteen minutes. No one leaves satisfied.
A major new federal study by researchers at Brandeis’ Heller school and Mass General Brigham hospital (MGB) aims to change that.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress, has awarded Brandeis and MGB a $25 million contract to test two approaches to improving care for older adults in primary care settings. The six-year study is co-led by Dr. Christine Ritchie, a geriatrician and palliative care physician at MGB, and by Jennifer Perloff PhD and Karen Donelan ScD at Brandeis' Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research.
The new study, called SPIRE — Supporting Practices in Respecting Elders — will compare two models. Half of participating practices will optimize how they use Medicare's annual wellness visits; the other half will implement a nursing and social work team called GRACE (Geriatric Resources and Assessment for the Care of Elders), which conducts home visits and assesses issues like nutrition, cognition, fall risks and home safety.
"Primary care clinicians struggle to care for older adults with complex needs in visits that are just too short, and older patients and families are often frustrated and confused by multiple appointments, medications and diagnoses," says Karen Donelan, Stuart H. Altman Chair in U.S. Health Policy and co-director of the Schneider Institutes. "The right team approach can save time, money and caregiver stress."
The study will follow 2,880 older patients with complex health needs — and their caregivers — across four health systems in Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina and Texas.
For Perloff, the stakes extend beyond the clinic. "This study breaks new ground by rigorously testing age-friendly, team-based care for older adults in real-world primary care practices nationwide," she says, "and locally here in Massachusetts, where policymakers are trying to foster improved access to primary care."
The results won't just fill academic journals. They could reshape how America cares for its oldest and most vulnerable patients — one fifteen-minute appointment at a time.
