The goal-concordant care lab

In close partnership with Duke Health, the Duke Center for Palliative Care has led a broad and ambitious initiative to improve the frequency, quality, and timing of goals of care conversations across the population of patients we care for. 

We created the goal-concordant care lab (the .care lab, for short), to connect clinicians and researchers to overcome barriers to effective goals of care communication in the setting of serious illness.  The .care lab is focused on two main areas:  1) understanding patterns of communication in serious illness; and 2) developing and testing interventions designed to enhance communication.  Through a combination of pilot grants, work-in-progress seminars, student internships, the .care lab is redefining the way that communication happens in the setting of serious illness across a large health system.