Palliative care research skill development needs: Lessons from the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC).

Abstract

174 Background: The field of palliative care (PC) has grown substantially over the past decade. PC research has not kept pace, however. One contributing factor is the paucity of clinical investigators equipped to conduct rigorous PC studies, especially multisite studies focused on interventions, dissemination and implementation. A core mission of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative (PCRC) is to enhance investigator capacity to conduct applied patient/caregiver-centered research. Methods: The PCRC Investigator Development Center (IDC) performed two needs assessments in 2015: 1) PCRC methodologic Core Directors; and 2) a subset of PCRC junior investigators. Results: Through these two assessments, PCRC identified the following knowledge/skills gaps in planning and implementing multisite clinical trials and implementation research: basic principles of clinical trials, nuts and bolts of multisite clinical trials, special considerations in behavioral and pragmatic clinical trials, testing treatment efficacy vs testing treatment effectiveness, selection of endpoints and measurement tools, recruitment and adherence issues unique to palliative care populations, data safety monitoring, budgeting and development of protocols/training for multi-site trials. These knowledge/skills gaps were identified by junior investigators as well as by senior investigators whose prior experience is primarily with single-site studies or secondary data analyses. Conclusions: Advancement of PC research requires upskilling of investigators n conduct of multisite studies. The PCRC is partnering with the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) to make available a range of investigator development resources, including one-on-one mentoring, grant review support, webinars and palliative care research boot camps.