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Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions in Palliative Care

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Book cover Textbook of Palliative Care

Abstract

Evaluations of complex interventions are of utmost importance to identify and deliver clinically and cost-effective palliative and end-of-life care for future populations. They are however challenging and resource intensive. The Medical Research Council (MRC) framework together with the Methods Of Researching End of Life Care (MORECare) collaboration provides clear standards on best research practice in evaluating services and treatments. These guidelines emphasize the need to consider implementation at all phases of evaluation, rather than only at the end. Furthermore, they highlight the need for flexible and pragmatic approaches to develop, examine, and evaluate complex interventions in palliative and end-of-life care. In this chapter we outline what a complex intervention is, discuss the challenges of developing and evaluating complex interventions in palliative and end-of-life care, and provide examples of complex interventions which have reached the evaluation phase.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, London, UK

    Nilay Hepgul, Wei Gao, Matthew Maddocks & Irene J. Higginson

Authors
  1. Nilay Hepgul
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  2. Wei Gao
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  3. Matthew Maddocks
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  4. Irene J. Higginson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nilay Hepgul .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine,Palliative Care, HammondCare, The University of Sydney School of Medicine, Sydney, Australia

    Roderick Duncan MacLeod

  2. VUB-UGhent End-of-Life Care Research Group, Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care and Department of Clinical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

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Hepgul, N., Gao, W., Maddocks, M., Higginson, I.J. (2019). Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions in Palliative Care. In: MacLeod, R., Van den Block, L. (eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77740-5_108

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