NIH Funds First-of-its-Kind Center to Study Resilience and Aging
America’s population is the oldest it has ever been. And though older people are more independent than ever, they face a huge care gap, one that challenges families, communities, and health care systems.
Enter the Center for Seniors Uniting Nationwide to Support Health, Integrated care, and Economics, known as the Center for SUNSHINE, an interdisciplinary collaboration funded by a $901,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging for the first two years to establish the center, with the potential for up to six years of support.
Co-led by the University of Maryland, College Park’s (UMCP) School of Public Health (UMD SPH) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), the Center for SUNSHINE will serve as a national hub for interdisciplinary research, training, and real-world innovation to strengthen resilience in aging populations. The center, outlined in a study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry this month, draws from 50 years of scholarship at UMCP’s Center on Aging and the computational innovation and clinical partnerships enabled by the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC).
“Our ultimate goal is happy, healthy and well-supported aging for everyone,” said Jie Chen, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and director of the Center on Aging and the Hospital and Public Health Interdisciplinary Research Lab at UMD SPH. “The Center for SUNSHINE is about building aging resilience by transforming the systems that shape health and care. Through bold interdisciplinary research, we aim to strengthen care coordination, empower communities, and reimagine the health and social infrastructure needed to support aging across the nation.”
The center will be helmed by Chen with co-leads Rozalina McCoy, MD, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and director of the Center for Population Health at UM-IHC, and Stephen B. Thomas, PhD, professor of health policy and management at UMD SPH.
“We are creating a remarkable platform for research, education, and innovation in health care delivery — bringing together economics, demography, medicine, population health, artificial intelligence, epidemiology, and health informatics — all in service of improving care systems and boosting the resilience of our older populations,” McCoy said.
Ten academic units across UMCP are involved in the Center for SUNSHINE, including the School of Engineering and the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland. Other partners include Howard University and the Erickson School of Aging Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). See below for a full list of partners.
The center will invest in training and mentoring the next generation of scholars, with a focus on aging resilience and health systems research. It also will support pilot projects led by qualified researchers nationwide, offering access to anonymized Medicare claims, electronic health records, and geospatial data, along with analytic and modeling support. Funded pilot investigators will receive tailored development resources to advance their research and career trajectories.
“Community engagement is a major focus of the Center for SUNSHINE. We are committed to ensuring that older adults and their families are not just ‘human subjects’ of research, but true collaborators in shaping the science, policies, and innovations that support healthy aging,” Thomas said.
In its first year, the Center for SUNSHINE will fund two pilot projects that directly apply research to improving the health and well-being of older people: Shelby Steuart, PhD, at UMCP, will examine telehealth and behavioral health care for older adults. Margaret Connolly, MD, at UMSOM, will explore access to novel treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a common condition in older people.
To set up an interview with Chen or Thomas, please email sph-comm@umd.edu. To set up an interview with McCoy, please email DKotz@som.umaryland.edu.
Center for SUNSHINE Partners
University System of Maryland
- UM Institute for Health Computing
- UM Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
- UM School of Medicine
- UM School of Pharmacy
- UMB Center for Research on Aging
- UMBC Erickson School of Aging Studies
- UMCP Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland
- UMCP College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
- UMCP College of Information
- UMCP Legacy Leadership Institute on Public Policy
- UMCP School of Business
- UMCP School of Engineering
- UMCP School of Public Health
Institutions Around the Region
- Georgetown University
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Howard University
- Universities at Shady Grove
Community and National Organizations
- PATIENTS Program, UMB
- Maryland CRAB
- Maryland Extension
- Encore Creativity for Older Adults
- AARP
