Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

New Tool available here:

The Palliative Care Outcome Scale
Dr. Irene Higginson's new tool for measuring quality of care. Please print out and complete the registration form and return to Dr. Higginson if you wish to use this tool. Staff and Patient Questionnaires are available here.

Tools and Websites Related to this Issue's Contributors:

1. Irene Higginson's Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS)
http://www.qlmed.org/STAS/index.html

This tool is located within Dr. Marcello Tamburini's multilingual site "Quality of Life Assessment in Medicine" http://www.glamm.com/ql/, which has a search engine to access more than 803 instruments, including the TIQ (Therapy Impact Questionnaire) that Dr. Franco Toscani mentions in his interview in this issue (see International Perspectives). To access the TIQ, go to http://www.qlmed.org/Tiq/index.html

2. The Department of Palliative Care and Policy at King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry and St. Christopher's Hospice, London, England.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/kcsmd/palliative/top.htm
Featured Innovator, Professor Irene Higginson is on the faculty of this department. This site includes a list of publications by Professor Higginson and other faculty members.

3. Palliative Care Research Institute, "Lino Maestroni"
http://www.istituto.org/istituto.htm
This Italian website has references and multiple links to sites relating to end-of-life-care and palliative care from all over the world (in Italian). Dr. Franco Toscani (see International Perspectives) serves as scientific director of this research institute.

Other Relevant Web Resources and Tools

1. Toolkit of Instruments to Measure End-of-Life Care (TIME)
http://www.chcr.brown.edu/pcoc/toolkit.htm
Dr. Joan Teno has built a "toolkit" which provides a comprehensive list of tools and references, including measurement instruments related to palliative care. This site contains annotated bibliographies of tools, including a substantial section on quality of life.

2. Edmonton Palliative Care Program
http://www.palliative.org/
An extensive palliative care site for both professional and non-professional audiences, offered by the Division of Palliative Medicine, Department of Oncology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and The Edmonton Regional Palliative Care Program. Content includes clinical information, patient assessment tools, cancer material, and links to related resources. For multiple links to clinical assessment tools:
http://www.palliative.org/pc_assess.html

3. The Best Practices Network
http://www.best4health.org/resources/articles/index.cfm
This site offers a few articles on clinical assessment, as well as extensive coverage of best practices in the health care field.

4. The Foundation for Accountability (FACCT)
www.facct.org
An organization dedicated to creating measures that hold the health system accountable for high-quality care. FACCT conducts focus groups and other research to understand the aspects of quality that are important to consumers and then combines these patient expectations with the best available clinical knowledge and scientific research.

5. Dying Well - Dr. Ira Byock's Website http://www.dyingwell.com
Dr. Ira Byock, past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, provides written resources and referrals for patients and families facing life-limiting illness and their professional caregivers. You may find the Missoula-Vitas Quality Of Life Index at
http://www.dyingwell.com/MVQOLI.htm
This is a measurement tool for assessing quality of life during the end stages of terminal illness.

6. University of Cambridge Health Services Research Group
http://www.iph.cam.ac.uk/hsrg/level2/palliati.htm
Provides abstracts of two research projects regarding palliative care audit and the determination of quality in palliative care. A list of their publications can be found at: http://www.iph.cam.ac.uk/hsrg/level1/publicat.htm#PCR