Project Title

Integrating Palliative Care and Heart Failure: a Realist Synthesis (PalliatHeartSynthesis) 

Research Focus

 Chronic Illness and Palliative Care

Funder & Dates

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – project start September 2021, project end February 2023

Principal Investigator or Primary Supervisor (if PhD project) 

Dr Tracey McConnell and Professor Joanne Reid (Joint Lead) 

Co-Investigators or additional supervisors

Dr Loreena Hill, Assistant Professor Geoff Wong & Claire Duddy

Research Fellow(s) or PhD Student

Clare Howie (Research Fellow)

Name & Institution of Collaborators 

Name of External Partner Organisations

Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services, University of Oxford

Description of Project:

Aim; Methods; Expected Outcomes

Background: Heart failure affects over 26 million people worldwide with prevalence expected to grow due to an ageing global population. Palliative care can address the holistic needs of patients with heart failure, and integrated palliative care in heart failure management has been indicated to improve outcomes for patients. Despite known benefits for integrated palliative care in heart failure management, implementation is still poor across the majority of global health services. A number of systematic reviews have identified the benefits of integrating palliative care into heart failure management and highlighted barriers to implementation. However, there is heterogeneity in terms of countries, healthcare settings, delivery by differing staff across multidisciplinary teams, modes of delivery and different intervention components.

Aim: To understand how integrated palliative care and heart failure interventions may work in different healthcare settings, e.g. inpatient/outpatient, and for which groups of people, so we can recommend strategies to maximise the potential for widespread.

Links/URLs to external pages