Duke is among a handful of research institutions to receive a National Institutes of Health (NIH) five-year, $64 million grant to establish and lead the Advancing the Science of Palliative Care Research Across the Lifespan (ASCENT) Consortium to advance innovative, high-quality research to improve care for people living with serious illness and their caregivers.
ASCENT aims to develop the national scientific infrastructure and community needed to advance palliative care research with new knowledge and methods, foster the future scientific workforce, and implement findings to benefit people living with serious illnesses.
“While the field of palliative care has grown significantly, too many persons with serious illness continue to experience poor quality healthcare, including poorly treated symptoms, poor communication with medical teams, and care inconsistent with their preferences,” said geriatrician and palliative care expert, Dr. Kimberly Johnson, a co-lead principal investigator (MPI) on the grant and the Brenda E. Armstrong, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine. “The goal of ASCENT is to have a multiplier effect that fosters engagement with more investigators, health care systems, community-based organizations, stronger research benefitting patients and caregivers, and an increase in funded palliative care science.”
In addition to Duke, the consortium includes principal investigators from the Colorado University School of Medicine (prime institution), New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and is supporting personnel from over 20 institutions, representing the interdisciplinary approach that is integral to palliative care.
Duke’s Palliative Care program has grown significantly since its inception in the late 1990s, evolving from an offshoot clinical geriatrics initiative to an independent program within Duke University Health System and now a section in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care. The grant offers an opportunity for further transformation of the program to become a leader in the field of palliative care.
Palliative care is often associated with older adults due to the increased prevalence of chronic conditions like cancer, dementia, and heart failure in this age group. However, palliative care is appropriate at any age and stage of serious illness.
Therefore, ASCENT will take a broad multidisciplinary approach to improve care across diseases, stages of illness, and throughout the life course, including a focus on infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with serious illness and unmet palliative care needs. Our tagline is “Advancing the Science of Palliative Care Across the Lifespan.”
The consortium will serve as a springboard for filling gaps and offering resources, expertise, and coordination to researchers who can make progress in advancing innovative research. The ASCENT Consortium will continue furthering that mission with four aims as guiding principles:
- Developing a national scientific infrastructure and community is needed to advance palliative care research.
- Creating new research knowledge and research methodologies.
- Fostering the career development and impact of the palliative care workforce through pilot awards, access to methodological consultations, and mentorships.
- Disseminating palliative care research findings and facilitating implementation. This will include providing resource libraries, guidance documents, best practices, training, and toolkits.
In addition to serving as a MPI, Dr. Johnson will co-lead the Health Disparities and Community Engagement Core.
The engagement component will help integrate health disparities and community-engaged research expertise across all ASCENT cores and activities, and foster training and development of early and mid-career palliative care scientists conducting research in these areas. The Core will also establish a lived experience advisory panel (LEAP) of patients, caregivers, clinicians, clergy, and representatives of community and national organizations.
“For two decades, I have been actively engaged in research to reduce disparities in palliative care for populations that experience a higher burden of serious illness and poorer health outcomes. Through its emphasis on new knowledge and resources to support rigorous research, engagement of multidisciplinary scientists, and a focus on improving palliative care delivery, ASCENT has the potential to identify and develop solutions that reduce disparities in access to and quality of palliative care across populations,” Dr. Johnson said. “The LEAP will allow us to engage and learn from those affected by serious illness, ensuring that our research is informed by and benefits those who need palliative care. I am thrilled to co-lead the Engagement Core with Dr. Cardinale Smith (Memorial Sloan Kettering). ASCENT is a real opportunity to transform palliative care delivery.”
The LEAP will play a crucial role in increasing the relevance and impact of ASCENT by identifying research priorities and consultation on awardee engagement plans and the overall direction of ASCENT, Dr. Johnson added, ensuring that the voices and perspectives of those impacted by serious illness are integrated into all aspects of consortium research and programming.
The award is being administered by the National Institute on Aging with funding collaboration from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Nursing Research, and National Cancer Institute.
Individuals can sign up to Join the ASCENT Community and directly receive information and updates from the consortium.