About the project
Project title: Improving Appropriate Access and Availability of Opioids for Cancer-related Pain Control in India: bridging the gap between policy and practice - a qualitative study.
Time frame: January 2021 - July 2021
Funding: Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) - Pump-priming funding
Contact for more details: Dr Joseph Clark
The purpose of this project is to promote appropriate access to opioid therapeutics in India, by identifying solutions to known regulatory and practical barriers to availability.
Most people with advanced-stage cancer experience moderate/severe pain which is treatable with opioid pain-killers. In India, most people with cancer live with, and die from it, without receiving these effective pain-killers, due to well-described regulatory and practical barriers.
Despite barriers, there are pockets of ‘good practice’ where clinicians caring for people with cancer have overcome barriers, enabling access to opioids, and provide good cancer-related pain control.
We will interview key clinicians at successful clinical teams in India, to find out how they have overcome problems and managed to implement solutions. We will produce a ‘Best Practice Handbook’, to discuss with other cancer services.