Kimberly Johnson, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), will receive funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the barriers and facilitators of advance-care planning for different racial groups. The project budget is of $5,824,874 over five years.
Dr. Johnson's project is Reducing Disparities in the Quality of Palliative Care for Older African Americans through Improved Advance Care Planning (EQUAL ACP).
- This study will include 10 different clinic sites that will be randomly assigned to deliver either Respecting Choices or Five Wishes to patients and caregivers, and conduct interviews with patients and caregivers to talk about their experience with advance care planning.
- The project team will enroll 800 seriously ill older adults in the Deep South; half will be African-American and half white.
- The eligibility criteria for patients capture older adults at high risk of mortality, functional decline, or hospitalization and include those with metastatic cancer and advanced chronic illness.
About PCORI
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent nonprofit, nongovernmental organization located in Washington, DC, was authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mandate is to improve the quality and relevance of evidence available to help patients, caregivers, clinicians, employers, insurers, and policy makers make informed health decisions. PCORI funds comparative clinical effectiveness research, or CER, as well as support work that will improve the methods used to conduct such studies.