UTOPIAN Participates in International Collaboration on Advance Patient Care Planning
The University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network (UTOPIAN) is participating in a four-year international study focused on advance patient care planning alongside six other practice-based research networks in the United States and Canada.
The Oregon Rural Practice-Based Research Network (ORPBRN) received an $8 million award to lead a study that intends to examine how patients share their goals of care with their health care providers and devise advance care planning strategies. It will examine palliative care approaches to improving patient’s quality of life, reducing caregiver burden and promoting a multidisciplinary approach to health care coordination. Specifically, the project will compare advance patient care planning with a primary care clinician versus a team-based approach.
UTOPIAN is one of the two Canadian networks participating in the study.
“Research leads will develop two advance care planning models and study their impact in primary care networks in the United States and Canada,” says Dr. Michelle Greiver, a Clinician Scientist at the Department of Family and Community Medicine and UTOPIAN’s Acting Director. “This announcement represents an important international collaboration that UTOPIAN is a part of. We look forward to working with our counterparts on this exciting project.”
UTOPIAN, comprised of over 1,400 family physicians, brings together DFCM researchers, primary care clinicians and practices from all its 14 academic sites to answer important healthcare questions and translate findings into practice.
“This collaboration represents an extraordinary opportunity to contribute in findings that will move forward advance patient care planning in both countries,” says Dr. Michael Kidd, Professor and Chair of the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine. “UTOPIAN is one of the largest and most representative primary care research networks in the world. We are providing support to this study in the hope that we can help improve discussions between health care providers and patients about advance care planning.”
ORPBRN, situated in Portland, received the award from The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by The United States Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions.
This award has been approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.
