Developing and Testing a Program to Strengthen the Dementia Palliative Care Trial Workforce

To describe the development and early outcomes of the National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded Dementia Palliative Care Clinical Trials Training Program (DEM-PCCT).

Nonpharmacological palliative care interventions can improve the lives of people living with dementia and their care partners, yet evidence remains limited. We developed DEM-PCCT to train investigators and enhance evidence-based dementia palliative care interventions. DEM-PCCT represents the first national program to integrate dementia-specific palliative care training with structured grant development, NIH stage model-based didactics, experiential trainings and longitudinal evaluation of scholar productivity-addressing a critical gap.

DEM-PCCT is a ten-month program where scholars participate in monthly virtual sessions and a one-week in-person didactic and experiential program. The curriculum to supports participants' research grant development and submission. Participants evaluate curriculum components and report their confidence, comfort and knowledge with conducting dementia clinical trials pre- and post-training. We also track grant submissions, published manuscripts and feasibility outcomes.

Three cohorts of interdisciplinary scholars (N = 53) have started and two have completed DEM-PCCT. Program feasibility and satisfaction were high. Confidence and comfort conducting dementia clinical trials significantly improved (P-value <0.05 for both). Most scholars submitted at least one research grant application by program completion, and secured funding. Scholars report continued productivity in grants and publications.

DEM-PCCT is a novel national training model that advances dementia palliative care by combining didactic training, experiential learning and structured grant development. Thus, DEM-PCCT builds the scientific workforce and serves as a model to accelerate evidence-based dementia palliative care interventions.