projects

Projects

Here in the Wolfson Centre for Palliative Care Research, we strive to make a real and lasting improvements in the care which patients receive towards the end of their lives, and to the support provided to their families.

We believe that everybody has the right to the same, high-quality care, wherever and however they choose to be cared for. To this aim, our research projects follow the strategic objectives of the Wolfson Centre for Palliative Care.

Our projects
Addressing under-researched symptoms and problems
Breathlessness
Delirium
  • DAMPen-D study: Improving the Detection, Assessment, Management, and Prevention of Delirium in Specialist Palliative Care Units (SPCUs)
  • SUNRISE International consortium researching delirium in palliative care: The SUNRISE consortium (Studies to understand and improve delirium in palliative settings) includes researchers in the UK, Canada and Australia. Our research aims to improve the care of people with, and at risk of, delirium in palliative settings
Gastrointestinal
  • EPOC: Patient-centred decision making in malignant bowel obstruction to optimise survival and quality of life: the right treatment at the right time
Thrombosis
  • Serenity: Towards cancer patient empowerment for optimal use of antithrombotic therapy at the end of life: A realist review of how deprescribing interventions can improve shared decision-making for cancer patients in the last year of life
Reducing inequalities in palliative care outcomes, improving access and optimising delivery
Informing and improving palliative care services and outcomes in low and middle-income countries
Spotlight on: Global Palliative Care

Access to palliative care, particularly in low and middle income countries, is one of the world's health largest inequalities. Here at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, we are developing collaborations and workstreams to address some of these issues. More about our research in global palliative care

Measuring individual and service-level palliative care outcomes
  • RESOLVE: Improving symptoms and well-being among those with advanced cancer across Yorkshire – collaborative work with University of Leeds

  • TRANSFORM: Palliative Care Outcomes Registry
Researching the social and psychological aspects of palliative care

This is a new and developing strategic objective, and project bids are in development, in particular work on how people with advanced illness experience diminishing social identity and connections in the months and weeks before death. Other projects in this area of work are already established.

Current projects:

Advancing education and research on implementation of palliative care evidence into policy and practice

Several projects (see above) have dedicated implementation components:

Other research
  • CanBenefit II: CANcer BEhavioural Nutrition and Exercise FeasibilIty Trial
  • CANFit: To compare a personalised home-based exercise programme with support from exercise professionals with NHS standard care
  • REMOTE-GO: Develop a personalised smartphone-based wellbeing programme for older adults living with and beyond cancer
Completed projects
Completed projects
ProjectPublications and resources
A systematic review and critical interpretative synthesis of psychological concerns of Indian women with breast cancer living in different national contexts BMJ
An exploratory systematic review and meta-analyses of airflow for the relief of chronic breathlessness in people with advanced disease  Palliative Medicine
Breathlessness RElief AT HomE (BREATHE) ERJ Open Research
BreatheMOR-HF ESC Heart Failure
Breathlessness and presentation to the emergency department: a survey and clinical record review  BMC Pulmonary Medicine
CANBenefit I

Journal of Cancer Survivorship

Journal of Geriatric Oncology

Cancer patients’ experiences of living with venous thromboembolism: a systematic literature review Palliative Medicine
C-CHANGE – developing and testing a case-mix classification in palliative care. An NIHR-funded project (RP-PG-1210-12015) led by Professor Fliss Murtagh at King’s College London, completed after moving to WPCRC

Annals of Palliative Medicine

BMJ

Palliative Medicine articles:

Funding models in palliative care: Lessons from international experience

How does uncertainty shape patient experience in advanced illness? A secondary analysis of qualitative data.

Phase of illness in palliative care: Cross-sectional analysis of clinical data from community, hospital and hospice patients.

A framework for complexity in palliative care: A qualitative study with patients, family carers and professionals. (Awarded Paper of the Month by Palliative Medicine)

A Brief, Patient- and Proxy-Reported Outcome Measure in Advanced Illness: Validity, Reliability and Responsiveness of the Integrated Patient Outcome Scale (IPOS).

Which outcome domains are important in palliative care and when? An international expert consensus workshop, using the nominal group technique.

Establishing key criteria to define and compare models of specialist palliative care: A mixed-methods study using qualitative interviews and Delphi survey.

Patients' views on care and their association with outcomes in palliative care.

CHAFF (Calming Hand and Fan Feasibility trial) Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 
CovPall

Palliative Medicine

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

Palliative Medicine

Development of a core outcome set for delirium Palliative Medicine
Does the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) sufficiently prioritise enablement of access to therapeutic opioids? Journal of Global Health Reports
HIDDen The Lancet
How physicians in South India recognise, assess and manage people with chronic breathlessness syndrome BMJ
Living with breathlessness: systematic review and qualitative syntheses.

European Respiratory Journal

British Journal of General Practice

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

Modified ITT Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
Missing data study

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

Missing data in trials: what you can do (jpeg)

NAT-ILD Study

NAT-ILD Study resources

Thorax

Thorax

Journal of Palliative Medicine

Non-medical devices for the management of chronic breathlessness: A scoping review of device use, barriers and facilitators for patients, carers and clinicians

 
Palliative care in the emergency department: qualitative systematic literature review and thematic synthesis   
Perceptions and experiences of laws and regulations governing access to opioids in South, Southeast, East and Central Asia  
RAMBO: Development of a core outcome set for malignant bowel obstruction  
Select-d experience study Palliative Medicine
Using behaviour change theory to drive scalability of the hand-held fan for chronic breathlessness BMC Pulmonary Medicine