Table 2.

Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group Core Principles

• Active interdisciplinary membership, with an understanding that membership decisions will reflect an inclusive rather than exclusive orientation.

• Commitment to shared research purposes, including development of meaningful and sustainable palliative care research, patient-focused inquiries and methods, and use of measurable outcomes valued by patients, investigators, regulators, and funders.

• Heterogeneity of sites, i.e., participation of sites with diverse skills, demographics, practice patterns, and healthcare delivery systems, to ensure the PCRC's ability to meet the needs of diverse research studies.

• Development of research capacity in participating sites, to upskill sites through increasing their knowledge of research methodology.

• Standardization of methodologies, such as study procedures, consenting, and data collection and management.

• Agility, i.e., ability to respond efficiently to requests of investigators, government sponsors, and industry.

• Responsiveness to regulatory and ethical requirements, including human subject protections.

• Focus on translation, i.e., connecting innovative ideas with clinically relevant and measurable outcomes; rapid implementation of research results to effect change.

• Engagement in education, to energize and train future researchers in palliative care.

• Generation of actionable results that can inform health policy.

PCRC, Palliative Care Research Cooperative.