Identifying patients early with potential palliative care needs

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Earlier identification of cancer patients with potential palliative care needs in primary care: views of cancer patients and healthcare professionals

• IRAS ID

  271648

• Contact name

  Mike Bennett

• Contact email

  m.i.bennett@leeds.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leeds

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 8 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  The goal of palliative care is to address the needs of patients with advanced diseases and to improve their quality of life. Despite the increasing evidence of the benefit of early access to palliative care, many patients do not receive palliative care early in the illness trajectory. In the UK, around 100,000 people with life-limiting conditions who could benefit from palliative care services do not receive such care in the UK every year.
  We aimed to develop an algorithm tool to identify patients who could benefit from palliative care using primary care-based electronic medical record data. The algorithm-based screening tool aims to identify patients with deteriorating health and increasing needs and hence benefit from an assessment of their supportive care needs.
  To inform the development and implementation strategy for our electronic palliative care screening tool, we want to understand patients and health professionals perceptions on when, why and how to consider palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. We will conduct interviews with health care professionals in primary care settings in Leeds to explore their perspective of how and when patients with cancer are identified as needing palliative care and barriers and facilitator for implementing an electronic palliative care screening tool. We will also conduct focus groups and interviews with cancer patients to understand their health and emotional needs and perceptions on the referral process to palliative care.

• REC name

  East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1

• REC reference

  20/ES/0009

• Date of REC Opinion

  6 Feb 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion