Vermont Conversation Lab

Northern New England Palliative Care TeleConsult Research Network

Rural Northern New Englanders lack access to specialty palliative care and TeleHealth technology can overcome these geographic barriers. The purposes of this award are to evaluate the feasibility of specialty palliative care TeleConsultation with people who have advanced cancer or heart failure and to understand the technological, aesthetic, and environmental factors that promote a sense of human connection in conversations that happen via TeleHealth.

PI’s: Bob Gramling MD, DSc; Paul Han MD, MPH

Funder:Northern New England Clinical & Translational Research Network (NIH U54 GM115516; PI’s Gary Stein & Cliff Rosen)

Project Team: (UVM) Liam John, Maggie Eppstein, Donna Rizzo, Bob Gramling. (Maine) Rebecca Hutchinson, Eric Anderson, Paul Han. (New York) Liz Gajary-Coots. 

Telemedicine Facilitated Palliative Care Consultations in Rural Dialysis Patients

The purposes of this award are (a) to test the feasibility and acceptability of TelePalliative Care consultation with patients in rural dialysis units, and (b) to describe the content of such conversations and their association with patient-centered outcomes.

PI: Katherine Cheung MD, PhD

Funder: National Palliative Care Research Center Career Development Award

Project Team: Katharine Cheung (PI), Bob Gramling (Primary Mentor), Michael Lamantia, Renee Stapleton, Terry Rabinowitz

Telecoaching Palliative Care Communication Skills for Rural Clinicians

The purposes of this award is to create a longitudinal telecoaching model for palliative care communication skills that is effective, feasible, scalable, and specifically targets rural community primary care providers who have limited access to palliative care specialists.

PI: Stephen Berns, MD

Funder: Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar Leadership Award