The End of Life Care Research Program is composed of clinical and health services investigators and staff focused on specific projects that have as their overall goal the improvement of end-of-life care. In addition to providing the core support for these specific projects, the Program serves as a resource to other investigators conducting related research.

It is also a goal of the Program to participate in education by providing the resources for medical students, medical residents, physician-fellows, and nurses to participate in these projects and conduct related research projects. The Program personnel also conduct clinical education for medical and nursing staff interested in improving patient-clinician communication about end-of-life care and improving the quality of care at the end of life.

Finally, several of the assessment tools being developed through the research of the Program, once validated, will be used in quality improvement projects targeting end-of-life care. The ultimate goal of these instruments is to improve care at the end of life.

1. Measure and improve the quality of patient-clinician communication about end-of-life care.
2. Identify and overcome barriers to patient-clinician communication about end-of-life care.
3. Develop interventions that will improve the quality of patient-clinician communication about end-of-life care and the quality of care at the end of life.
4. Develop a series of process and outcome measures that can be used as an end-point in evaluations of end-of-life care.
   1. The quality of communication about end-of-life care
   2. The quality of dying and death
   3. The quality of physician skill at providing end-of-life care
   4. The quality of clinician-family communication in the ICU