Adaptive Interventions News

NIH Program Announcements Calling for SMART or MOST

Researchers planning to write a proposal that incorporates a sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial (SMART) or that follows the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) should review the NIH program announcements below. Each one calls for either SMART or MOST designs.

You may also want to review Linda Collins' advice for planning a grant proposal using MOST.

PA-13-077 Behavioral and Integrative Treatment Program (R01)

Agencies

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR)

Purpose: "to encourage behavioral intervention development research..."

Designs specified: SMART

Open PA-13-077

PA-13-160 Alcohol Use Disorders: Treatment, Services, and Recovery Research (R01)

Agency

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Purpose: "to support research on behavioral and pharmacological treatment for alcohol use disorders..."

Designs specified: "adaptive clinical trial designs and statistical analyses that allow for adjustments to treatment based on the changing disease status of the patient." This is SMART.

Open PA-13-160

PA-13-165 Innovative Research Methods: Prevention and Management of Symptoms in Chronic Illness (R01)

Agencies:

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Purpose: "to update the randomized control trial design using novel research methods"

Designs specified: SMART and MOST

Open PA-13-165

NIH Funding Announcement Calls for Sequential, Multiple Assignment, Randomized Trials (SMARTs)

January 17, 2013

A new announcement from NIH seeks proposals that improve behavioral treatments for drug abuse, HIV, chronic pain, or related behaviors. PA-13-077 is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). This program announcement specifically solicits proposals featuring sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial (SMART) designs because of SMART’s applicability to efficacy studies and to translating interventions into real world settings.

Featured Articles: Building Interventions That Adapt to Meet Individuals’ Needs

December 5, 2012

In adaptive interventions, the intervention options (such as the type, dosage, intensity, or content of the intervention) are individualized and adapted over time in response to the ongoing performance and changing needs of the participant. In recent years, investigators have become increasingly interested in obtaining empirical evidence that informs the construction of high-quality adaptive interventions, especially adaptive interventions that optimize long-term outcomes. Methodology Center scientists recently published two related papers in Psychological Methods in which they discuss experimental designs and data analysis methods specifically developed to help investigators construct adaptive interventions based on empirical evidence.

Big Data Present Big Challenges for Researchers

August 23, 2012

Susan Murphy's work on sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMART) is discussed in the article "Big Data Present Big Challenges for Researchers" on the Alzheimer Research Forum. The article is part of a two-story series on the symposium "Meaningful Use of Complex Medical Data," which took place earlier this month at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Murphy spoke at the symposium about how SMART is being used to develop and optimize treatment policies.

Read the article

New Software for Building Adaptive Health Interventions

July 30, 2012

We are pleased to announce the release of PROC QLEARN, a SAS procedure for building adaptive health interventions. PROC QLEARN was developed by the Methodology Center to analyze data from sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMARTs). This software will help researchers build interventions that adapt at the right times to improve participant outcomes (e.g., intensifying for people who do not respond to initial treatment) while decreasing the cost and burden of the intervention (e.g., stepping down treatment for responsive participants).

Featured Article: Designing Adaptive Health Interventions

March 2012 Featured Article March 27, 2012

Adaptive health interventions are an increasingly important tool in behavioral health. They use individual variables (e.g., severity of condition, patient preferences) to adapt an intervention; then they dynamically use individual outcomes (e.g., response, adherence to treatment) to readapt the intervention. Altering the intensity or type of treatment can be critical to patient success when an individual is not responding, and it can reduce cost and burden when intensive treatment is no longer necessary. Sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMARTs) provide the high-quality data needed to construct effective adaptive interventions.

Podcast: Adaptive Health Interventions and Causal Inference

Methodology Minutes February 24, 2012

In our latest podcast, host Aaron Wagner interviews Daniel Almirall, Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and Investigator at The Methodology Center. The discussion focuses on sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMARTs), which allow scientists to develop adaptive interventions.

Upcoming Presentations on Adaptive Health Interventions

Susan Murphy Daniel Almirall April 18, 2011

There has been a great deal of interest in Methodology Center researchers Drs. Susan Murphy’s and Daniel Almirall’s recent work on adaptive health interventions. These interventions provide treatment scientists with a sequence of decision rules that specify whether, how, for whom, and when to alter the intensity, type, or delivery of treatment at critical decision points in the management of chronic disorders.

Come see us at SBM!

Linda Collins Daniel Almirall Susan Murphy March 30, 2011

Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM), Washington, DC, April 27-30, 2011

Dr. Linda Collins will be presenting “Efficient Designs for Examining the Effects of Individual Intervention Components,” and Dr. Daniel Almirall will be presenting “The Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) for Building Adaptive Interventions.”

New Applet: Sample Size Calculator for a SMART Design with Censored Data

July 21, 2010

A new web applet is now available to calculate the sample size necessary to detect a meaningful difference between two-stage adaptive treatment strategies in a SMART. The sample size calculator is based on the weighted log rank test with time independent weights.

Adaptive Interventions News

PA-13-077 Behavioral and Integrative Treatment Program (R01)

PA-13-160 Alcohol Use Disorders: Treatment, Services, and Recovery Research (R01)

PA-13-165 Innovative Research Methods: Prevention and Management of Symptoms in Chronic Illness (R01)

Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM), Washington, DC, April 27-30, 2011

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