Integrated care for people with advanced cancer and chronic disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient-centered integrated palliative care pathways in advanced cancer and chronic disease (InSup-C)
IRAS ID
145465
Contact name
Sheila Payne
Contact email
Research summary
What are the experiences of adults with advanced cancer and chronic disease and their carers of integrated palliative care services and what are the views of professional caregivers involved in service delivery?
This study will focus on services that provide integrated palliative care to adults with advanced cancer, heart failure or chronic obstructive airways disease. By ‘integrated’ we mean when several organisations work together to provide care that meets patient and carer need. For the purposes of this study, we define ‘palliative’ as applying to those people considered by a medical practitioner as likely to be in the last year of life.
The study is being carried out in five European countries. In each country, five integrated palliative care initiatives will be identified from which patients, carers and professional caregivers will be recruited to gather data on service utilisation. Participation is voluntary and subject to written, informed consent. Patient and carer participants will ‘followed’ through their contacts with services over a three month period. During that time, they will be interviewed twice and complete a series of questionnaires relating to quality of life, symptom burden, social network, and carer experience. Patients will be asked to keep a weekly record of the contacts they have with care services. These meetings will happen at a place chosen by the participant. In addition, we will ask some professionals about their views of the services they provide. Data will be anonymised and subject to qualitative and descriptive statistical analysis. Cross country analysis of aggregated (collated) data will be carried out. It is anticipated that findings will lead to recommendations for best practice in integrated palliative care which will have international application.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0140
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion