• Anand S Iyer, Rachel D Wells, J Nicholas Dionne-Odom, Avery C Bechthold, Margaret Armstrong, Jun Yeong Byun, Lanier O'Hare, Richard Taylor, Stephanie Ford, Jazmine Coffee-Dunning, Mark T Dransfield, Cynthia J Brown, and Marie A Bakitas.
• Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine (A.S.I., L.O.H., M.T.D.), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, Department of Medicine (A.S.I., R.D.W., J.N.D., J.C., M.A.B.), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; School of Nursing (A.S.I., R.D.W., J.N.D., J.C., M.A.B.), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama. Electronic address: aiyer@uabmc.edu.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 Apr 1; 65 (4): 335347.e3335-347.e3.

ContextEarly, concurrent palliative care interventions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited. Project EPIC (Early Palliative Care In COPD) is a multiphase mixed methods study working to fill this gap.ObjectivesTo conduct a formative and summative evaluation of EPIC, a telephonic nurse coach-led early palliative care intervention for COPD adapted from the ENABLE© intervention in cancer.MethodsPhase I Formative Evaluation: Patients with moderate-to-very-severe COPD, family caregivers, and pulmonary and palliative care clinicians rated the acceptability and feasibility of EPIC (≥4 out of five on a Likert-scale survey). Phase II Summative Evaluation: Patients and family caregivers in Phase I participated in a pilot of the three month EPIC prototype to evaluate intervention and data collection feasibility (≥70% completion) and to seek qualitative feedback.ResultsPhase I Formative Evaluation: Patients (n=10), family caregivers (n=10), pulmonary clinicians (n=6), and palliative care clinicians (n=6) found EPIC acceptable and feasible to support adaptation, while priority early palliative care needs in COPD from our prior research mapped well to the EPIC prototype. Phase II Summative Evaluation: Patients (n=5; ages 49-72, 40% moderate COPD, 40% Black) and their family caregivers (n=5; ages 51-73, 40% Black) completed 100% of EPIC prototype components, including weekly telephone sessions, a one month follow-up call, Advance Directive, palliative care clinic attendance, and 95% of monthly phone data collection sessions. Feedback from participants about EPIC was all positive.ConclusionEPIC was acceptable and feasible in patients with COPD and their family caregivers. Larger feasibility and effectiveness trials are warranted.Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

20 keywords...

hide…