Palliative care principles should be integrated into all facets of the health care delivery system. Building on the work of specialist palliative teams now in place at the majority of US hospitals, this integration is easily achievable.

The IPAL Project, an initiative of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, is designed to provide a central venue for sharing expertise, evidence, tools and resources essential to the integration and improvement of palliative care in specific health care settings. Our first project was IPAL-ICU (Improving Palliative Care in the ICU), launched in June 2010, led by Judith Nelson, MD, JD with support from the National Institutes of Health. Our second project was IPAL-EM (Improving Palliative Care in Emergency Medicine), launched in November 2011, led by Tammie E. Quest, MD, with support from the Olive Branch Foundation. Our third project is IPAL-OP (Improving Outpatient Palliative Care), co-led by Lynn H. Spragens, MBA and David E. Weissman, MD, with support from The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Each IPAL project has been developed using a similar process:

• Convene an oversight board of nationally recognized interdisciplinary leaders
• Develop a catalog of most-needed tools and resources to help spur systems-change work that would integrate principles of palliative care into daily practice
• Seek out existing tools and resources from established and emerging teams across the country
• Develop new peer-reviewed tools representing best practice
• Continually update our site as new tools become available

We hope you find this site useful as you work to improve palliative care services in your hospital.

Thank you.