A key focus of the Australian Government's National Palliative Care Program is supporting access to appropriate medicines to help maintain comfort and function during the terminal phase of a person's life.
Professor David Currow
Initial work on medicines considered to be essential for good community-based palliative care was completed in 2003.
Under the direction of Professor David Currow, the Palliative Care Medications Scoping and Research Study was carried out by a research group from Flinders University. This study systematically reviewed the available evidence and worked with individual sponsor pharmaceutical companies to support changes to the registered list of priority medications.
It was anticipated that additional evidence would be necessary to support the registration of some medications for listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
The Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC) was developed in 2006 in response to a request from the Department of Health and Ageing for the research needed to support the continued development of evidence-based trials in palliative care. PaCCSC was the world's first and largest palliative clinical research collaborative.
Since then, the collaborative has continued to grow the number of sites actively participating in studies on palliative care medication and continues to build both national and international relationships. The incorporation of PaCCSC into IMPACCT marked a new era in palliative care research.