Making it easier to get palliative care in the hospital
Improving the delivery of inpatient palliative care: a hybrid type I pragmatic cluster trial
Testing an electronic health record alert that helps hospital teams find and offer palliative care to adults with serious illness.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Pennsylvania NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Philadelphia, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11370586 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you're hospitalized with a serious illness, this project tests a new way hospitals use electronic health records to spot patients who may need palliative care and prompt clinical teams to act. Hospitals (or hospital units) will be randomly assigned to use the automated needs-based 'trigger' in the EHR or to continue usual care, and clinicians will receive the alerts when patients meet the criteria. The study follows patients to see whether the approach leads to earlier specialist palliative care, better symptom relief, care that matches patients' goals, and different patterns of hospital resource use. The trial is embedded in real hospital practice to learn how the tool works in everyday care settings.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are adults hospitalized with serious illnesses (including advanced cancer) who might have unmet palliative care needs.
Not a fit: Patients who are not hospitalized, who already receive comprehensive palliative care, or who do not have serious illness needs are unlikely to benefit directly from this trial.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could help more hospitalized patients get palliative care sooner and improve symptom relief and goal-concordant care.
How similar studies have performed: Some hospitals have used EHR-based triggers to find patients and showed improved identification, but it remains unclear whether triggers alone reliably improve patient outcomes in real-world trials.
Where this research is happening
Philadelphia, United States
- University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Courtright, Katherine Rinaldi — University of Pennsylvania
- Study coordinator: Courtright, Katherine Rinaldi
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.