Director's welcome

Our academics and research staff take a transdisciplinary approach focused on improving quality and equitable access to care that improves quality of life and outcomes for people affected by chronic conditions or those who have palliative care needs.

Our centre comprises of:

• Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care Research programs
• Two national collaborative clinical trials groups:
  • Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC)
  • Cancer Symptom Trials (CST)
• An international collaborative quality improvement program, the IMPACCT Rapid Program
• The IMPACCT Trials Coordination Centre (ITCC)

All our research starts from the perspective of the person living with a chronic disease or a life-limiting illness; considering the needs of and challenges faced by the individual themselves but also to their carers and families.

To have real-world impact we also need to ensure we consider the roles of the health professionals, the health system, and society as a whole in their care. We are equally interested in informing how health services and systems can be optimally configured to meet the contemporary needs of people with chronic and progressive conditions.

Our clinical academics work with people living with a range of chronic illnesses including cancer, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and vascular disease; and people living with multimorbidity.

We work in a wide range of thematic areas including symptom management, interventions to improve function and independence, optimising care transitions, improving patient experience, enhancing carer support, and improving models of care and approaches to ensure uptake of this new knowledge into practice.

Meaningful engagement with community contributes to setting priorities for the research we do, and the quality, relevance, and impact of our research. Our partnership with consumer advisors seeks their input from the generation of ideas, and the conduct of the research through to analysis, interpretation, and dissemination to impact policy and clinical practice to allow us to better address consumer needs and improve health outcomes.

At IMPACCT, we value capacity building through leadership and collaboration. We remain closely connected to our national and international clinical and industry colleagues through our active group of adjuncts and alumni, and our large palliative care clinical trials networks across multiple sites in Australia, as well as through our strong engagement with Maridulu Budyari Gumal, the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise  (SPHERE) [opens external site]. 

IMPACCT incorporates an interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Palliative Care, the first of its kind in New South Wales.  Our suite of online courses aims to directly meet the needs of industry. They have been purposely designed with input from an expert External Advisory Board and wide-ranging consultation.

I encourage you to explore our website, which outlines the world-leading research we undertake and the outstanding achievements of my team in the areas of palliative, aged and chronic care, and cancer research.

We welcome expressions of interest for research collaborations and enquiries for more information on our current research, postgraduate, and higher research degree programs. Together we can improve the lives of those with chronic or life-limiting illness.

Professor Meera Agar
Professor Palliative Medicine
Director, IMPACCT