From left: Dr Alison Bowers, Adjunct Associate Professor Anthony Herbert, Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates, and Professor Natalie Bradford. Credit: Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has awarded an A$3m ($2.03m) grant to a project led by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for establishing the Centre of Research Excellence for Paediatric Palliative Care.

This initiative seeks to enhance care for the estimated 40,000 children and adolescents in Australia living with life-limiting conditions, according to QUT School of Nursing and Cancer and Palliative Care Outcomes Centre chief investigator professor Natalie Bradford.

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Bradford said: “It is important to remember that palliative care is not synonymous with end-of-life care, but rather is an approach to care that improves the quality of life of patients and their families as they face life-limiting illness.

“Despite children’s palliative care being a national health priority for Australia, we still lack sufficient evidence to support the planning and delivery of these much-needed services.

“More research is required to understand the prevalence of life-limiting conditions in First Nations children, who appear over-represented in the data compared with non-Indigenous children with conditions that may be preventable.”

Once open, the new research centre will focus on developing new models of care tailored to the specific needs of geographically diverse populations.

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It aims to foster shared decision-making by incorporating the perspectives of children, their families, as well as the associated clinicians, ensuring that care aligns with the goals and wishes of the child and family.

Furthermore, the centre will develop methods to measure the experiences and outcomes of children and their families.

By collaborating with health-system and consumer organisations, the Centre for Research Excellence will work to translate research findings into improved access to care and better decision-making processes.

The establishment of the centre is also expected to boost the paediatric palliative care research workforce, promoting collaborations and nurturing future leaders in the field. 

Professor Bradford and the team at QUT’s Centre for Healthcare Transformation, which is known for its multidisciplinary approach to health research, will play a pivotal role in driving the centre’s objectives. 

International Children’s Palliative Care Network Professor Julia Downing said: “At ICPCN we are delighted to be supporting this work along with colleagues from across Australia and New Zealand, as well as internationally.

“Developing an evidence-base for children’s palliative care is essential as we move the field forward and is a core part of the WHO conceptual model for the development of palliative care.”