Achieving palliative care research efficiency through defining and benchmarking performance metrics.
OBJECTIVE
Research efficiency is gaining increasing attention in the research enterprise, including palliative care research. The importance of generating meaningful findings and translating these scientific advances to improved patient care creates urgency in the field to address well documented system inefficiencies. The Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) provides useful examples for ensuring research efficiency in palliative care.


RESULTS
Literature on maximizing research efficiency focuses on the importance of clearly delineated process maps, working instructions, and standard operating procedures in creating synchronicity in expectations across research sites. Examples from the PCRC support these objectives and suggest that early creation and employment of performance metrics aligned with these processes are essential to generate clear expectations and identify benchmarks. These benchmarks are critical in effective monitoring and ultimately the generation of high-quality findings that are translatable to clinical populations. Prioritization of measurable goals and tasks to ensure that activities align with programmatic aims is critical.


CONCLUSIONS
Examples from the PCRC affirm and expand the existing literature on research efficiency, providing a palliative care focus. Operating procedures, performance metrics, prioritization, and monitoring for success should all be informed by and inform the process map to achieve maximum research efficiency.
Duke Center for Learning Healthcare, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. jordan.lodato@duke.edu
Jordan E
JE
Lodato
Noreen
N
Aziz
Rachael E
RE
Bennett
Amy P
AP
Abernethy
Jean S
JS
Kutner
D019985:Benchmarking; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010166:Palliative Care; D010934:Planning Techniques; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012107:Research Design; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000458:organization & administration