PaCCSC strategic plan

The PaCCSC strategic plan sets out our goals and objectives for 2023 to 2028. The plan's focus on five strategic directions provides a road map for the collaborative's growth and innovation.

Six people at the PaCCSC & CST Annual Research forum 2023 - three in front row, three in back row - smiling at the camera.

Better medicines, treatments, and advances in technology, have led to people living longer, healthier lives. These advancements have also led to an increase in people living with multiple health problems that make care more complex. High-quality evidence gained from clinical research is needed to improve the care of people living with life-limiting illness requiring palliative care.

The Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC) is an Australian-based research network located at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). PaCCSC was formed in 2006 to bring together a network of clinicians, researchers, consumers and stakeholders to improve the evidence base for the provision of palliative care.

The PaCCSC vision

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All people impacted by a life-limiting illness will have access to evidence-based palliative care that improves their quality of life.

The PaCCSC purpose

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To facilitate high-quality inclusive clinical research through collaboration and capacity building that informs the evidence base for the provision of best practice and policy in palliative care.

Strategic directions

Support and grow an interdisciplinary network of clinicians, researchers, consumers and stakeholders who collaborate to conduct high-quality clinical trials in palliative care.
Membership
- Maintain a member-based network that includes palliative care clinicians and consumers with lived experience of palliative care
- Strategically grow the membership to benefit from diversity in skills and experience across specialties, disciplines, and professions
- Encourage new membership from early- and mid-career palliative care clinicians to build their research knowledge and participation in PaCCSC activities
- Promote new membership applications from members of stakeholder organisations
Consumer representation
- Enable ongoing engagement of consumers in PaCCSC activities through a Consumer Advisory Group (CAG)
- Grow consumer representation in PaCCSC activities
- Actively recruit new consumers to ensure diverse community representation including culturally and linguistically diverse communities as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Build consumer capacity by identifying, communicating and offering training opportunities
Collaborative partnerships
- Seek opportunities to build new collaborative partnerships
- Collaborate with partners to develop new trial concepts, which may include co-branded concept development workshops
- Collaboratively co-develop and co-brand new trials where it improves scientific quality; can leverage funding opportunities; and enable timely completion of trials to maximise impact on clinical practice and policy
- Build capacity and enhance trial designs through partnership with professional/expert clinical research organisations
Provide sustainable, independent governance to support members and collaborators to facilitate the conduct of high-quality clinical research in palliative care.
Governance structure
- Maintain a robust and transparent governance structure, ensuring it retains independence, engages members, provides expert advice, and builds key relationships with stakeholders
- Engage experts to provide the right skills and insights at the right time
- Be nimble and responsive to shifts in policy direction, healthcare priorities, and palliative care service delivery
Succession planning
- Build succession planning into all committees to foster and support continuous renewal and aid the growth of members to lead in the future
- Grow early- and mid-career researchers’ skill development in governance and leadership
- Increase participation in PaCCSC symptom nodes/hubs/areas of research interest through regular promotion
Core funding
- Engage with current and potential funding partners, including industry partners and regulatory authorities, to secure the financial future of PaCCSC
Operational planning
- Retain a National Manager and an operational team to support the day-to-day operations of PaCCSC
- Practise sound business management to ensure operational sustainability
Build clinical trial capacity through training and mentorship that results in sustained growth of clinical trials in the palliative population.
Training and research capacity building
- Target capacity-building activities in clinical research skills, with a particular emphasis on palliative care trainees, nurses and allied-health clinicians to build the clinical research leaders of the future
- Support Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training delivery for the benefit of members
- Promote training opportunities for all members to build their cultural awareness to increase diversity in clinical trials with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse communities
- Promote regular opportunities for members’ learning and education via the Site Investigator Forum guest presenter program
- Investigate funding opportunities to support a Palliative Care Clinical Fellowship program for early- and mid-career researchers
- Explore partnerships with training colleges to support research capacity building across disciplines
Formal research training
- Promote postgraduate palliative care research training to clinicians
- Support tertiary training in palliative care clinical research through the provision of research higher degree supervision by members with academic appointments
- Seek opportunities for funding of PhDs and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, in conjunction with academic partners from various universities
Mentorship
- Actively promote informal mentorship opportunities for members across their clinical research careers
- Promote membership of the Symptom Node Subcommittees to early- and mid-career researchers to facilitate mentorship in specific research focus areas
- Promote committee membership to early- and mid-career researchers to grow their leadership potential
Sponsor and conduct clinical trials that are strategically focused on palliative care research priorities that will attract and secure competitive funding.
Focused research priorities
- Identify and prioritise innovative clinical research ideas to maximise opportunities to contribute to the evidence base
- Deliver an annual program of new concept development activities to enable members to generate new clinical trial ideas
Support high-quality clinical research
- Support members to develop new trial concepts that are rigorously designed, including feasibility/phase II studies that generate knowledge to conduct phase III trials
- Ensure that all new trial concepts undergo scientific review and endorsement
- Respond to current and emerging trial design methods and support members to develop their understanding
- Liaise with regulatory, industry and funding agencies when initiating new concepts
- Continue to build the evidence base for clinical decision-making through the IMPACCT Rapid Quality Improvement Program
Support funding applications
- Support members with applications for local, national and international competitive funding
- Respond to emerging funding opportunities, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council and Medical Research Future Fund
Optimise trial operation
- Provide trial sponsorship for member trials administered through the IMPACCT Trials Coordination Centre
- Maintain a trials coordination centre to support members to adhere to quality, regulatory, and guidance frameworks for clinical trial conduct
Engage a clinical trials network
- Maintain and grow a network of participating recruiting sites
- Provide training and operational support through the IMPACCT Trials Coordination Centre
Increase participation in clinical trials
- Support members to develop new trial concepts that are inclusive of under-represented populations
- Expand trial participation and evidence generation to inform better outcomes for diverse communities
Contribute to the translation of clinical trial results into clinical practice and health policy to positively influence the care and outcomes of people affected by life-limiting illness.
Results dissemination
- Support members, particularly coordinating principal investigators, by assisting with the development of a dissemination plan for phase III clinical trials, to publish, present and promote in a timely manner
- In conjunction with coordinating principal investigators, liaise with consumers and stakeholders to promote and disseminate clinical trial results, in a timely manner
Translation into policy and practice
- Seek opportunities to engage with policymakers with a focus on the translation of clinical trial results into clinical practice
- Foster the incorporation of quality-of-life and health economics outcomes in all clinical trials
- Ensure the collection of a minimum data set across all PaCCSC-endorsed clinical trials
- Evaluate the impact of disseminated clinical trials results on clinical practice
- Publish IMPACCT Rapid Quality Improvement Program results in peer-reviewed literature and actively promote the program to palliative care clinicians as a resource to aid their accreditation needs.