Official start of EU PAL-COPD on 1 January 2024

EU PAL-COPD, a five-year research project funded by Horizon Europe, aims to advance the integration of palliative care in the treatment routine of people with advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in different healthcare systems in Europe. 

The EU PAL-COPD project is a multidisciplinary, interprofessional, international and intersectoral project aiming at evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the ICLEAR-EU intervention for people with advanced COPD in different healthcare systems in Europe.

ICLEAR-EU is a person-centred and family-centred non-pharmacological service intervention in which respiratory teams in the hospital collaborate with interdisciplinary palliative care teams and with primary care to promote shared decision-making and advance care planning, improve symptom treatment and comfort care, and prevent re-hospitalization after an exacerbation. ICLEAR-EU is based on an existing intervention developed and pilot tested in the UK.

In EU PAL-COPD, the effectiveness of ICLEAR-EU will be assessed with a stepped wedge cluster RCT in 1,224 people with advanced COPD in 18 hospitals across six European countries. It is hence the first large-scale international trial on systematic integration of palliative care in respiratory care for people with advanced COPD. EU PAL-COPD will improve the well-being and empowerment of people with COPD and their families and advance the state of the art by providing an innovative service model to the complex palliative and end-of-life care needs. User and stakeholder involvement is crucial throughout the project.

This project contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.