The NPCRC awards grants to investigators conducting research projects aimed at relieving suffering and achieving the best possible quality of life for patients living with serious illness and their caregivers. The Pilot Project Support Grants are designed for mid-senior investigators to help them develop pilot data for larger externally funded research projects. The Junior Faculty Career Development Awards are designed to provide funding to promising junior investigators to protect their time for research.

In a collaborative parallel initiative with the NPCRC, the American Cancer Society (ACS) also supports pilot projects in palliative care and cancer modeled on the NPCRC’s program. View the ACS Grantees.

2011 Grantees

Rebecca Aslakson, MD, MSci

Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Dr. Aslakson's research and clinical goal is to improve delivery of palliative care to intensive care unit patients, particularly to the unique and traditionally-underserved subset of surgical patients.

Tracy Balboni, M.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Balboni's project examines how specific advanced cancer patient religious/spiritual beliefs and attitudes influence patient quality of life near death and medical care received in the final month of life. Furthermore, she will be examining the elements of spiritual care from both the medical team and religious communities that impact patient well-being and intensity of medical care at the end of life. This research will inform the development of a spiritual care intervention aiming to improve patient well-being and to assist patients in avoiding futile, aggressive therapies near death.

Ruth A. Engelberg, PhD

Research Associate Professor
University of Washington
Dr. Engelberg will use a mixed-methods design to examine same-sex partners' experiences as end-of-life decision-makers for decisionally-impaired patients dying in critical care settings. Using interviews, she will explore same-sex partners' perceptions of barriers and facilitators that interfered with, or enhanced, their ability to participate as decision-makers. Using questionnaires, she will describe psychological symptoms that same-sex partners may have experienced as a result of their role in end-of-life decision-making. She will also assess the feasibility and effectiveness of using innovative research strategies designed for hidden and marginalized populations.

Susan Enguidanos, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor
Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California
Dr. Enguidanos will use mixed methods to study 30 day hospital readmissions among palliative care patients. This study will employ prospective patient and family interviews as well as retrospective analysis of existing inpatient palliative care data. Characterizing the specific problems encountered by seriously ill patients and families following hospital discharge and palliative care consultation will inform the efforts to improve continuity of care and support the patient's longitudinal palliative needs.

Melissa M. Garrido, PhD

Assistant Professor
Bronx VA Research Foundation
Dr. Garrido will use administrative data as well as data from interviews with care providers and electronic medical records to examine the impact of mental illness on veterans' palliative care access and outcomes. First, she will examine whether depression and anxiety affect the likelihood of inpatient palliative care consultations and time from admission to palliative care consultation for veterans with life-limiting illnesses. Secondly, she will identify factors that facilitate or hinder the occurrence of mental health assessments during palliative care consults and the receipt of post-consult depression/anxiety treatment.

Steven Z. Pantilat, MD

Professor of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Pantilat's will conduct a pilot randomized clinical trial to assess the impact if a comprehensive, interdisciplinary palliative care intervention provided concurrently with standard cardiology on depression, pain, anxiety fatigue, quality of life, satisfaction with care, and resource utilization among outpatients with Class II-IV heart failure compared to standard cardiology care alone. Patients randomized to the interventions will have at least 6 contacts with the palliative care team over 6 months, of which at least 3 will be in person.

Rebecca L. Sudore, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Sudore will refine and test a preparation guide that includes communication-based skills training to improve engagement in advance care planning. The goals of this project are to refine and finalize the preparation guide to provide evidence of validity and reliability of a new survey instrument designed to measure engagement in advance care planning, and to conduct a small pilot trial to determine whether the preparation guide can improve engagement in advance care planning and preparation for decision making.

Kathleen Unroe, MD, MHA

Assistant Professor
Indiana University
Dr. Unroe's focus is palliative care and end of life care for nursing home patients. She will examine the role of hospice in the nursing home setting using secondary data analysis to describe characteristics of nursing home patients who elect hospice, differences between nursing home and home hospice patients, and differences in the experiences of nursing home patients who die without hospice vs. those who do use hospice.