PCOC is committed to advancing palliative care and policy through research.
Since its inception, PCOC has continued to collaborate with researchers in various ways. This includes collaboration on specific studies, research programs and research grants. Our program of research involves studies conducted in Australia and as part of international research programs. PCOC supervises PhD candidates through the Australian Health Services Research Institute at the University of Wollongong. PCOC produces a steady stream of peer-reviewed publications.
Research-related impact includes the development of casemix research methods, the development of a measure that is used routinely with tens of thousands of patients in services throughout Australia, and the adoption of our palliative care phase measure, which is helping to develop a common palliative care language internationally. PCOC also helps enable the development of research networks through connecting clinicians with researchers, and making research in palliative care possible through our PCOC longitudinal database. Our research network includes collaborations with Australian National Health and Medical Research Centre funded research, University of Western Australia, King’s College London, University of Technology Sydney, National Institute for Health Research investigators (UK), and palliative care clinicians and policy leads in Australia, Taiwan, Ireland and Germany.
Adolescents and young adults
Name of study: Palliative care in adolescents and young adults: What’s needed?
Aim: To identify characteristics associated with the unique cohort of adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients accessing palliative care in Australia in order to assess the need for AYA specific models of palliative care
Research team: Hughes R (lead), Rahman M, Allingham S, Daveson B
Lead organisation: Calvary Mater Newcastle
The influence of trials
Name of study: The trial-active versus not trial-active palliative care sites study
Aim: To determine whether trial-active phase III palliative care sites (PaCCSC) have more rapid improvement in symptom control than other palliative care sites (in PCOC but non-PaCCSC sites) in the same health system
Research team: Currow D (lead), Allingham S, Fazekas B, Brown L, Clapham S, Clark K, Chye R, Eagar K, Daveson B, Davis W, Agar M
Lead organisation: University of Technology Sydney and PCOC
Models of care and outcomes
Name of study: An investigation of the relationship between service model and patient outcomes
Aim: To identify characteristics of inpatient palliative care services that produce optimal outcomes
Research team: Daveson B (lead), Allingham S, Clapham S, Connolly J, Kable L, Eagar K
Lead organisation: AHSRI, University of Wollongong
Place of death
Name of study: Palliative care outcome measures and patient choice: How do they influence place of death?
Aim: To analyse the relationship between a person’s preferred place of death and other individual variables that might influence their actual place of death by examining the activity of two specialist community palliative care services in Australia, the Sydney Adventist Hospital Community Palliative Care Service (SanCPCS) and Eastern Palliative Care Association Incorporated (EPC)
Research team: Edwards J, Moody J, Hooper D, Kneen K, Draper K, Connolly J, Eagar K, Saurman E, Blackburn P, Allingham S
Lead organisation: Eastern Palliative Care, Victoria, Australia
SAS: Patient versus roxy rating
Name of study: Measuring patient-reported symptom distress in palliative care
Aim: To determine the proportion of patient-reported versus proxy-reported symptom distress using the PCOC Symptom Assessment Scale (SAS), with analysis of associated factors to determine those that may influence patient versus proxy reporting
Research team: Clapham S (lead), Allingham S, Daveson B, Morris D, Blackburn P, Johnson C, Eagar K
Lead organisation: AHSRI, University of Wollongong
AKPS and RUG-ADL
Name of study: The AKPS and RUG-ADL study
Aim: To examine the relationship between AKPS and RUG-ADL
Research team: Morgan D (lead), Connolly A, Allingham S, Currow D
The PCOC SAS
Name of study: The PCOC Symptom Assessment Scale (SAS): An examination of its validity, reliability and interpretability
Aim: To examine the validity, reliability and interpretability of the PCOC SAS
Research team: Daveson B (lead), Allingham S, Clapham S, Yates P, Johnson C, Currow D, Eagar K
Lead organisation: AHSRI, PCOC
Unstable phase in patients requiring palliative care
Name of study: The unstable phase study
Aim: To determine the characteristics of palliative care patients in the unstable phase
Research team: Connolly A (lead), Pidgeon T, Clapham S, Allingham S, Daveson B, Eagar K
Lead organisation: PCOC, AHSRI, University of Wollongong
Palliative care in aged care
Name of study: Improving choices through the Palliative Care Collective: Collaborating for optimal end of life care at the right time, place and by the right people for older people
Aim: To examine the feasibility of PCOC in RACFs, pilot text evaluation methods and examine effectiveness
Research team: Eagar K (lead), Davis E, Daveson B, Mullan J, Blanchard M, Connolly J, Clapham A, Connolly A, Westley-Wise V
Lead organisation: AHSRI, University of Wollongong, joint collaboration between CHRISP and PCOC
SAS and ESAS
Name of study: A comparison between SAS and ESAS
Aim: To compare SAS and ESAS, and inform scale development
Research team: Johnson C (lead), McPherson A, Clapham S, Allingham S
Lead organisation: AHSRI, University of Wollongong
Service capability
Name of study: The development of a classification framework for cross national comparisons of capability for palliative and end-of-life care
Aims: To: Develop a classification tool for capability of palliative and end-of-life care health services; Examine the association between service capability and palliative care outcomes; Examine the level of service capability to achieve palliative care benchmarks; Compare the capability of Australian health services for providing palliative and end-of-life care to meet population needs; and test the application of the framework to help project future needs of health service capability for palliative and end-of-life care
Lead: Clapham S (PhD candidate)
Supervisors: Daveson B, Eagar K
Indigenous Australians
Name of study: Palliative care outcomes among Indigenous Australians: Analysis of a nation-wide data set
Lead: Mr John Woods (NHMRC scholarship awardee)
Supervisors: Thompson S, Johnson C
Organisation: University of Western Australia
© PCOC UOW 2020. The intellectual property associated with a suite of resources on this website is owned by the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC), University of Wollongong. PCOC has placed resources in the public domain and is happy for others to use them without charge, modification or development. These resources cannot be modified or developed without the consent of the University.
PCOC is a national palliative care project funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.