Lundquist Institute researcher awarded NIH funding to advance ICU care for critically ill patients

The Lundquist Institute is proud to announce that Dong Chang, MD, MS has been awarded a prestigious R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging, totaling $3,163,459, for his groundbreaking project entitled: "A Type 2 Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study of Time-Limited Trials to Reduce Potentially Non-Beneficial Treatments for Critically Ill Patients with Advanced Medical Illnesses."

The project commenced on September 25, 2025, marking a major milestone for both Dr. Chang and The Lundquist Institute. This award underscores the Institute's commitment to advancing excellence in Health Services and Outcomes research, while improving the quality and humanity of care for patients with critical illnesses.

Overuse of invasive ICU treatments for patients with advanced illnesses can sometimes result in minimal benefit and unnecessary suffering. Dr. Chang's work addresses a key driver of this issue-gaps in communication between clinicians, patients, and families.

To bridge these gaps, Dr. Chang and his team developed a structured communication strategy that utilizes shared-decision making and time limited trials (TLT) of ICU treatments to help care teams, patients, and families agree on treatment goals, define time frames for certain interventions, and regularly reassess outcomes together. In pilot studies, TLTs improved the quality of communication and reduced use of non-beneficial ICU treatments.

With this NIH R01 funding, Dr. Chang's team will now conduct a large-scale, pragmatic clinical trial to test the effectiveness and real-world implementation of the TLT model across two major healthcare systems:

• Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS), the second-largest public healthcare system in the United States, and
• Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC), the region's largest integrated healthcare system.

These diverse healthcare environments provide an ideal setting to study how TLT can improve ICU care for patients from varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Lundquist Institute extends its heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Chang and his collaborators for securing this highly competitive award and for their continued efforts to elevate the Institute's research profile. By combining scientific innovation with compassion, Dr. Chang's work promises to transform ICU care and enhance shared decision-making for patients and families nationwide.