Announcing the 2021-2022 Intervention and Implementation Science Pilot Awardees

February 12, 2021

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, home to Columbia University’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)(link is external and opens in a new window) Program hub, alongside the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, announce the winners of 2021-2022 Intervention and Implementation Science Pilot Award.

The Irving Institute’s Implementation Science Initiative, the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, and the CDC Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention(link is external and opens in a new window) support this program as a key capacity building opportunity to stimulate the development and testing of:

  1. Innovative population health or medical/clinical interventions
  2. Implementation of evidence-based population health or medical/clinical interventions that have been shown to work, but have not been widely adopted, implemented or sustained in diverse and real-world global, community, clinical/health systems or policy settings.

This program offers early resources for pilot, proof-of-concept projects to be conducted “in miniature”, ultimately leading to larger intervention or implementation science projects and producing new knowledge that directly impacts population health, supported by larger extramural funds. The 2021-2022 cycle prioritized applications that focused on promoting health equity and racial justice. The awardees are: 

Reducing Public Stigma Towards Individuals with Psychosis Across Race and Gender: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Young Adults

  • Doron Amsalem, MD, Psychiatry (Principal Investigator)
  • Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH, Psychiatry
  • John Markowitz, MD, Psychiatry
  • Yuval Neria, PhD, Epidemiology and Psychiatry; Director of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Program at CUIMC
  • Linda Valeri, PhD, Biostatistics
  • Lawrence Yang, PhD, Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Global Public Health, NYU; Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health

*Supported by the Irving Institute and Department of Epidemiology

The Impact of Race and Other Characteristics on Parent-Teacher Communication: Examining a Critical Mechanism of Change for Implementation and Mental Health Outcomes in Children with Autism

  • Gazi Azad, PhD, Psychiatry (Principal Investigator)
  • Christina Hoven, PhD, Epidemiology and Psychiatry (Co-Principal Investigator)

Adapting the Suicide Safety Planning Intervention for Delivery to Adolescents in Mozambican Primary Care Settings: An Implementation Science Pilot Proposal

  • Kate Lovero, PhD, Psychiatry (Principal Investigator)
  • Christa Labouliere, PhD, Psychiatry
  • Barbara Stanley, PhD, Psychiatry
  • Milton Wainberg, PhD, Psychiatry

* Supported by the Irving Institute and Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention

Lock and Protect: Reducing Adolescent Access to Lethal Means for Suicide

  • Ashley Blanchard, MD MS, Pediatrics - Emergency Medicine (Principal Investigator)
  • Randy Auerbach, PhD, Psychiatry
  • Joan Asarnow, PhD, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California – Los Angeles School of Medicine 
  • Peter Dayan, MD, MSc, Pediatrics - Emergency Medicine

 * Supported by the Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention

Adaptation and piloting of brief interpersonal therapy (IPT) for remote delivery among refugees and other displaced persons in Peru

  • Jeremy Kane, PhD, MPH, Epidemiology (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Helen Verdeli, PhD, Clinical Psychology, Teachers College (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Annie Bonz, MA, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
  • Claire Greene, PhD, MPH, Population and Family Health
  • Christian Guzman, HIAS – Peru, HIAS
  • Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Epidemiology
  • Pieter Ventevogel, MD, PhD, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

*Supported by the Department of Epidemiology