The PINNACLE Project: community-based Primary healthcare INNovations for people with Advancing Chronic LifE-limiting conditions

The rising number of people facing old age makes it likely that advancing chronic and life-limiting illness will be a dominant challenge for Canadian healthcare delivery in the next half-century. Planning for end-of-life (EOL) care for these and other individuals facing life-limiting illness is vital to a well-managed and person-focused healthcare delivery system. Our program of research aims to transform the primary healthcare system to enhance accessibility and quality of EOL care for chronically ill Canadians and their family members. Working with an interprofessional team of researchers and knowledge users located in five Canadian provinces, the overall goal of our research program is to develop, evaluate and facilitate the scaling up of interventions and innovative and integrated models of community-based primary healthcare (CBPHC) to better support Canadians with advancing chronic life-limiting illness. Our focus is on both home and community care as well as long term residential care that supports our most vulnerable populations. Our research program will include 3 intersecting research strands: (1) Building capacity for the delivery of a palliative approach in CBPHC professional practice; (2) Understanding and supporting the roles of family caregivers and direct care workers in a palliative approach in CBPHC; and (3) Promoting access and equity in EOL care for targeted doubly vulnerable populations. Our team brings exceptional clinical, policy, theoretical and methodological grounding to this research, and its collective track record provides a solid foundation for the ambitious proposed program of research in CBPHC. By pooling the expertise of national and international researchers, greater advances and faster progress can be made in the care of people with advancing chronic life-limiting conditions, including those who may be doubly vulnerable.