Evaluation of ICLEAR-EU intervention to integrate palliative care in the treatment of people with advanced COPD and their family caregivers

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a devastating life-limiting lung disease with a high personal and societal burden. Worldwide, COPD is the 3rd leading cause of death. The symptom burden of people with COPD is as severe and burdensome as the symptom burden of people with lung cancer (CA). However, while palliative care (PC) in many countries is available for people with lung CA, PC for people with COPD is mostly not well integrated into their treatment and care plans by respiratory hospital teams in Europe. EU PAL-COPD aims at evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the ICLEAR-EU intervention for people with advanced COPD in different healthcare systems in Europe. EU PAL-COPD will be the first large-scale international trial on systematic integration of PC in the care provided by the respiratory team for people with advanced COPD. It will advance the state of the art by providing an innovative service model to the complex PC and end-of-life care needs experienced by people with COPD and their families. Ethics, user and stakeholder involvement methods are integrated throughout the whole project.