The effect of case conferences between general practitioners and palliative care specialist teams on the quality of life of dying people

ISRCTN	ISRCTN52269003
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN52269003
Protocol serial number	N/A
Sponsor	University of Queensland Medical School (Australia)
Funder	Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, National Health Development Fund (Australia)

Submission date: 14/12/2006
Registration date: 19/01/2007
Last edited: 05/09/2008

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Signs and Symptoms

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Dr Geoffrey Mitchell
Scientific

Edith Cavell Building
Univerissty of Queensland Medical School
Herston Road
Herston
4006
Australia

Phone	+61 (0)7 3365 5504
Email	g.mitchell@uq.edu.au

Study information

Primary study design	Interventional
Study design	Mulit-site single blind randomised controlled trial
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Scientific title
Study objectives	For patients with life limiting disease, formal case conferences held between patients General Practitioners (GPs) and their palliative care team will improve Quality of Life (QoL) for patients and their carers.
Ethics approval(s)	1. University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number B/311/Soc & PrevMed/00/PhD) 2. Mater Adult Hospital Research Ethics Committee (ref no: 369A) 3. Townsville Health service District Institutional Ethics Committee 4. Princess Alexandra Research Ethics Committee (ref: 179/01)
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Palliative care
Intervention	Case conference held betwen the patient's GP and the specialist palliative care team, held by tele-conference, within three weeks of referral. The control group receives usual care- ie communication between GPs and the specialist team was by normal means.
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure(s)	Global quality of life measures at three weeks post intervention
Key secondary outcome measure(s)	1. Subscale measures of quality of life scales 2. Process evaluation of GP-specialist case conferences note: Two a priori analyses planned. The first is using the intervention as a fixed time point, evaluating the effect from the time of the intervention. The second is using date of death as fixed time point, and evaluating intervention from time of death, independent of the time of the intervention
Completion date	31/05/2003

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Adult
Lower age limit	18 Years
Sex	Not Specified
Target sample size at registration	220
Key inclusion criteria	1. Adult Patients requiring palliaitve care, and their carergivers who are referred to a participating specialist palliative care service 2. Aged over 18 3. Life expectancy of at least one month 4. Not confused or too unwell to be approached 5. Could read and speak English 6. Had a current GP
Key exclusion criteria	1. Life expectancy less than one month 2. Confused 3. Too unwell to be approached 4. Could not read or speak English 5. Did not have a current GP
Date of first enrolment	01/07/2001
Date of final enrolment	31/05/2003

Locations

Countries of recruitment

Australia

Study participating centre

Edith Cavell Building

Herston
4006
Australia

Results and Publications

Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not provided at time of registration
IPD sharing plan

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Results article	Participation and effectiveness results:	15/07/2002	Yes	No
Results article	Quality of life results:	01/12/2008	Yes	No
Abstract results	Lessons from case conferences:	01/05/2005	No	No
Other publications	Methodology comparison:	01/12/2005	Yes	No
Thesis results		01/06/2004	No	No