Research Resources

The IPAL-ICU Project focuses on closing the gap between existing evidence and practice, making sure we actually do what is known to work - improving the quality of ICU palliative care. Future improvement depends on research to expand the evidentiary foundation for practice. Here we list some of the richest research resources in the field.

• Funding Opportunities and Notices This area of the NIH Office of Extramural Research Web site allows investigators to search for funding opportunities and provides links to other information about applying for NIH funding.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding of Critical Care Research Prepared by Dr. Andrea Harabin of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH, this document is made available in the research resources section of the American Thoracic Society's Web site. It briefly describes how critical care research is funded at NIH and identifies sources for further information.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research In 2002, NIH charted a "roadmap" for medical research to provide a framework of priorities that NIH as a whole, as opposed to individual institutes or centers, would address. The NIH Roadmap highlights three main areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and reengineering the clinical research enterprise. In 2006, Congress created the NIH Common Fund, which supports trans-NIH programs within the Roadmap. Research proposals addressing Roadmap priorities may be particularly attractive to NIH.
• National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) - Palliative Care End-of-life and palliative care science is a strategic focus of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) in the NIH. NINR is the lead institute at NIH for end-of-life research. To coordinate this effort, NINR has established the Office of Research on End-of-Life Science and Palliative Care, Investigator Training, and Education (OEPC). This NINR Web page provides information related to end-of-life/palliative care research at NINR and across the NIH.
• National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) The NPCRC promotes and facilitates research in palliative care. It provides funding to support the career development of junior investigators as well as pilot studies focused on improving care for patients with serious illness and their families. NPCRC serves as an administrative home for researchers.
• University of Washington End-of-Life Care Research Program Comprises clinical and health services investigators and staff focused on specific projects with the overall goal of improving end-of-life care. In addition to providing the core support for these projects, the program, led by IPAL-ICU Advisory Board member J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH, serves as a resource for other investigators conducting related research. This program has developed several process and outcome measures of ICU end-of-life care that are available on the Web site.

Research Tools

• National Palliative Care Research Center Measurement and Evaluation Tools The NPCRC provides a selection of measurement and evaluation tools for conducting palliative care research, including tools related to pain and symptom management; functional status; psychosocial care; caregiver assessment; and quality of life.
• Toolkit of Instruments to Measure End-of-Life Care (TIME) The Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at Brown Medical School makes available a comprehensive toolkit of instruments to measure multiple domains of end-of-life care. Annotated bibliographies of existing instruments are provided along with recommendations, guidance in selecting an appropriate instrument and a PowerPoint presentation about the toolkit.
• University of Washington End-of-Life Care Research Program Tools Clinical and health services investigators at the University of Washington End-of-Life Care Research Program. The program also serves as a resource to other investigators conducting related research. Tools developed by this group, which appear on the program's Web site, include the Quality of Dying and Death (QODD) and the Quality of Communication (QOC) instruments.