BCTR Talks at Twelve
“Priority Research Areas in Palliative Care: Findings from a Mixed Method, Multi-Stakeholder Research Project”
Emily Chen and Catherine Riffin, Human Development, Cornell University

Thursday, May 15, 2014
Beebe Hall, Cornell University

In March 2012, an interdisciplinary team from Cornell’s Department of Human Development and the Division of Geriatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College initiated a project to produce a research agenda for palliative care that integrated both researcher and practitioner perspectives, in order to advance clinical practice and ignite investigation of critical research gaps. In this presentation, Chen and Riffin will report on the three inter-related activities that informed the research agenda: 1) a systematic review of the literature with a specific focus on identifying knowledge gaps from review articles on the topic of palliative or end-of-life care, 2) a survey of thought leaders in the field of palliative care, and 3) consensus conferences that presented academic research priorities to palliative care practitioners in order to solicit additional research recommendations and ascertain practitioner priorities. They will describe the strengths and challenges of their methodological approach, report results of the systematic review and survey of thought leaders, and discuss the research-to-practice consensus conferences that utilized practitioners to both expand and refine the list of research recommendations.

Emily Chen is a doctoral candidate in Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the individual and social contexts of health behaviors, the experience of older adults with chronic disease, and the role of planning, communication, and self-efficacy in the experience of illness and disability. Collaborating with psychologists, sociologists, and physicians, in both rural and urban settings, Emily has explored these topics using qualitative and quantitative methods. She has an MA in Human Development from Cornell and an AB in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College.

Catherine Riffin is currently a fourth year doctoral student in Human Development in the College of Human Ecology. Upon completing her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 2008, she pursued pediatric anxiety research at Brown Medical School. Since arriving at Cornell, she has begun to explore the relational and psychological components of aging. Her present line of research examines the socioemotional and cognitive factors that influence health decisions among older adults with chronic pain.
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