Clinical study

How great is the benefit of telemedical consultations by palliative care experts compared to conventional palliative care in intensive care units? This is what the research team is investigating as part of the EPIC project.

"Before the telemedical counselling phase begins, the hospital staff in the intensive care units first receive palliative care training," explains Claudia Spies, who is leading the research project. "We are also developing checklists to help the teams identify patients who would benefit from specialised palliative care as early as possible."

Around 2,000 patients and their family members are taking part in the research project. It is being carried out in seven clinical centres with palliative care and 23 multidisciplinary intensive care units in five European countries.

e-learning

In EPIC, we develop a curriculum for and conduct training of EPIC interventionists.
The palliative care specialists who provide the consultation - the “EPIC interventionists” - come from each of the 7
participating national centres.

The training will cover e.g. the checklist for assessment of palliative needs,
and how to conduct a consultation and documentation.

Scientific Advisory Board

At EPIC, we collaborate with internationally recognised experts. As our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB),
they give advise, make recommendations and support the EPIC international visibility.

→ see the EPIC Scientific Advisory Board members here.

Booklet 'Palliative care in the ICU'

EPIC consortium, together with the EPIC patient and family advisory group
to co-create materials for public use such as the booklet 'Palliative care in the ICU'.

The booklet will be in easy language about palliative care in the ICU and available via our website for download.

Innovating Graduate Diploma

EPIC aims at promote certification of telepalliative care through palliative and intensive care associations.

As initial step, EPIC intends to achieve CME certification for EPIC educational modules and integration into

European graduate diploma.

European Ethics recommendations

In EPIC, we analyse citizens’ perceptions regarding the ethics of telepalliative care in ICU.

Which ethical values will telepalliative care support, emphasize, obscure, or alienate us from? Answering this question necessitates the use of an ethical framework with recommendations that can maximize telepalliative care’s positive impacts and minimize the risk of negative impact.

European Ethics Recommendations for telepalliative care in ICU will be published.

Map of facilitators and barriers

To strengthen post-study implementation of improved palliative care practices across Europe
we will conduct in-depth examination and analyses of facilitators and barriers of palliative and end-of-life care in the ICU.

Results will be integrated into a publication mapping facilitators and barriers for palliative and
end-of life care in the ICU.

EPIC Stakeholder Symposium

Under the lead of the ESAIC, EPIC will organize an online Stakeholder Symposium on “Enhancing Palliative Care in ICU”
to discuss the next steps to enhance palliative care for critically ill patients and their families in Europe.

Representatives from important stakeholder groups will be invited
including the EC, healthcare managers, policy and lawmakers, healthcare funders, representatives from medical and
nursing association, citizen groups, patients and family representatives.

beyond 2028

We expect that EPIC results will inform other researchers and clinicians

→ to investigate new care models that use telemedicine.
→ to integrate telemedicine for cost-effective access to high quality healthcare all over Europe.

Telemedicine will provide  high quality care to meet the growing demands of the ageing population in Europe.

Ethical policy recommendations will be used to apply telemedicine responsibly, with equity, balancing benefit and harm to all members of the society.