EU PAL-COPD

01-2024 to 12-2028

The EU PAL-COPD project is undertaking a groundbreaking approach to incorporating palliative and end-of-life care into the standard care path for advanced COPD. Through the implementation of a service-based model, the ICLEAR-EU intervention will focus on early identification of palliative care needs, multidisciplinary care integration, advance care planning, and ongoing review to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and mitigate the impacts of COPD. This project aligns with the Horizon Europe 2023-2024 Health work programme, specifically the call HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03-01. 

We plan to conduct a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial to measure the (cost-) effectiveness of the highly innovative non-pharmacological ICLEAR-EU intervention in improving quality of life and reducing hospitalisations for individuals with advanced COPD. This project seeks to go above and beyond the current standards of COPD care in Europe by not only considering medical needs but also prioritising a patient- and family-centred approach with shared decision-making in care planning and continuity of care between hospital and community settings. Our aim is to achieve the triple aim of better healthcare, better health, and lower costs.

One of the main focuses of this project is to develop and implement a feasible, acceptable, and sustainable intervention that is compatible with existing pain management, palliative care, and end-of-life care practices in European healthcare systems. The intervention will be tailored to fit the specific contexts of each healthcare setting, with continuous involvement of users and stakeholders to ensure that complex human, social, cultural, and ethical aspects of COPD care are addressed. Through the EU PAL-COPD project, we aim to promote health equity for individuals with advanced COPD who are often marginalised and disadvantaged, with low health literacy and socioeconomic status, and are primarily over the age of 50 and male. By improving access to appropriate palliative and end-of-life care, this project has the potential to significantly impact health equity and access to care across the community.

EU PAL-COPD is funded by the European Union (grant no. 101136621) and supported by Innovate UK and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).