Kudos to Sharron Docherty and Francis Keefe (MPI) and their entire team for the submission of their NIH P30 application entitled: "Center for Intervention Research in Palliative Care and Symptom Science (CIRPS).”  This proposal requests funding for a 5-year period with a start date of July 1, 2018. Docherty would like to include a special thank you to Chip Bailey who was responsible for a large portion of the grant conceptualization and writing. 

The overall goal of the proposed P30 Center of Excellence is to advance biobehavioral research that addresses the growing challenge of care needs for adults with multiple chronic conditions in the context of advanced disease. Our proposed “Center for Intervention Research in Palliative Care and Symptom Science, at the Duke University School of Nursing, is a strategically designed interdisciplinary research collaboration, that aims to develop a cadre of nurse scientists who have the skills and expertise needed to develop and sustain programs of symptom-focused palliative care intervention research that will address the challenges faced by the growing number of individuals living with multiple chronic conditions and complex advanced disease. The work of the Center will be performed in two Cores (Administrative; Pilot Administrative), an Enrichment Program in Palliative Care Intervention Development, two proposed Pilot Projects and three Pipeline Pilot Projects to be developed, and four additional new pilots funded in-kind. There are 65 Center Collaborators. The program of research in the Duke School of Nursing is organized into four areas of excellence: Clinical Innovation, Population Health, Precision Health, and Methods and Analytics. These areas are synergistic with the Center’s proposed theme on adults living with multiple chronic conditions and complex advanced disease. The School was ranked #4 in NIH funding (2016) and the overall direct costs available in the research base (i.e., funded research projects at the time of application) = $8,027,290 (25 extramural awards).

The overall Center aims are to:

Aim 1: Advance the science of care for people with multiple chronic illnesses in the context of advanced disease by creating complementary, synergistic research activities and guiding innovative pilot projects that can serve as a model for improving our understanding of high-quality palliative care interventions, and their ethical, legal, and social implications.

Aim 2: Enhance and sustain the productivity of new/early stage nursing scientists engaged in research on multiple chronic illnesses in the context of advanced disease, with a focus on developing and testing high impact, innovative intervention protocols that address palliative care and the complex and progressive symptoms, symptom clusters, and symptom trajectories of people with progressive disease and their caregivers.

Aim 3: Accelerate nursing scientists’ skills in developing, testing, and evaluating palliative care interventions for diverse populations of adults with multiple chronic conditions and advanced disease in ways that prioritize patient and family needs.