Duke University and the University of Colorado schools of medicine have received a $10 million grant from the National Institute for Nursing Research to continue development of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) over the next five years. The consortium aims to promote best practices for relieving suffering and improving quality of life for seriously ill patients.

“We intend for the PCRC to set the gold standard for multisite palliative care and end of life research,” said Dr. Amy Abernethy, director of the Center for Learning Health Care at Duke and PCRC Co-Chair. “Progress under the initial grant has catalyzed an outpouring of broad interest, motivation, support and enthusiasm. The award will support efforts to build the cooperative group into a more robust, enduring resource for research support and training.”

The research group was established in 2010 with initial funding from the National Institutes of Health, and it now includes more than 20 member institutions from across the nation.

Abernethy said she is passionate about new research because of the dire need for proper end of life care. “It is an incredible national investment in infrastructure that has been needed for a long time,” she said. “The U.S. population is aging, and many suffer from multiple chronic diseases at the same time. The need for palliative care will increase, and we don’t have enough senior palliative care researchers, people who have the basic palliative care research toolbox.”

Dr. Jean Kutner, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and PCRC Co-Chair, said the funding will allow them to better inform physicians and patients about the benefits of palliative medicine. “We will develop key resources and infrastructure that nurture, enlist and harness investigator and site interest,” she said. “This will enable us to promote the conduct and translation of high-quality, collaborative, patient-centered palliative care and end of life research.” Medical students, junior researchers and general practitioners could benefit from new findings and guidance.

Palliative medicine is provided to the terminally and seriously ill to help treat symptoms and side-effects of disease and aggressive treatments. The goal of palliative care is not cure, but symptom management.

Abernethy and Kutner oversaw the group’s first multi-site clinical trial designed to determine if discontinuing cholesterol-lowering medications when patients near the end of life alters survival and quality of life. The results are expected to be published in the coming months.