The Power of Collaborative Research
Carpenter CoLab's research endeavors are centered on patients and families with life-limiting illnesses. We delve into areas such as symptom management, palliative care needs, palliative care disparities, and psychosocial support, with a focus on developing and testing novel interventions.
Our work has far-reaching implications, benefiting not only patients but also their families and the broader healthcare community. By generating evidence-based insights, Co-Lab empowers healthcare practitioners with the knowledge and tools needed to provide more effective and compassionate care for individuals with serious illnesses.
Current Projects
Preferences Elicited and Respected for Seriously Ill Veterans through Enhanced Decision-
Making (PERSIVED)
PERSIVED is an implementation project that aims to enhance care outcomes for
seriously ill Veterans by supporting efforts to discuss goals of care, documenting their life-sustaining treatment (LST) preferences, and ensuring timely availability of these preferences across VA and non-VA settings. This project will ameliorate potentially burdensome LSTs by consistently eliciting and documenting the values, goals, and treatment preferences of seriously ill Veterans.
Improving Access to Dementia Palliative Care in Nursing Homes
This is a comprehensive qualitative study to better understand the variation of
palliative care consultation implementation for people living with dementia and other serious illnesses in nursing homes (NHs). This work will put forth a comprehensive process model to guide researchers, clinicians, and policy makers in palliative care consultations in NHs by (1) identifying site specific factors that act as barriers and facilitators, (2) developing step-by-step structure and processes to support implementation, and (3) assessing ongoing processes and outcomes to ensure effective implementation
Veteran Experience Center (VEC)
The objective of the Veteran Experience Center is to enhance the care of seriously ill Veterans throughout the VA system and to establish and disseminate care processes that lead to improved outcomes, such as communication, spiritual support, and symptom management, for Veterans nearing the end of life and their families. The Bereaved Family Survey (BFS) is the central component of the Veteran Experience Center, and it has been endorsed by the National Quality Forum as well as being a Performance Measure for Rehabilitation and Extended Care Integrated Clinical Communities.
Partnership to Study Palliative Care in Nursing Homes
This project is funded by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Institute for Clinical &Translational Research (ICTR) Community Engaged Research (CEnR) Voucher Program. This project is a partnership between a large post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) organization in Maryland and University of Maryland School of Nursing. Over the next year, we will co-design a palliative care research project to investigate outcomes most important to the PALTC leadership, staff, residents, and their care partners. The funding will be use to support regular meetings with an advisory board representing diverse membership, formal and informal surveys, and meaningful in person engagement with individual PALTC staff and leadership to identify the research question and study approach to measure outcomes.
Past Projects
Nursing Home Staff Risk Perceptions and Experiences Associated with Restricted Social
Activities During SARS-CoV-2
This is an exploratory qualitative description study aimed at describing the use of compassionate care visits in nursing homes, their benefits and risks, and how COVID-19 pandemic visitation restrictions were perceived by NH staff. This study will underscore the benefits and risks of compassionate care visits during COVID-19-restricted visitation to mitigate the detrimental effects of extended social isolation in nursing homes.
Palliative Care Consultations for Persons in the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Setting
This study is a pilot clinical trial with the objective of assessing evidence-based palliative care consult intervention for older adults during post-acute care in nursing homes by comparing the patient/family caregiver reported quality of life in two participant groups: one receiving a palliative care consultation and the other receiving standard care. This study will establish a fundamental understanding that will guide the development of tailored palliative care consultation intervention to improve care for seriously ill older adults in skilled nursing facilities.
Palliative Care Consultations for Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia
in the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Setting
This is a multi-site pilot pragmatic clinical trial, with a two-arm nonequivalent group aimed at testing a palliative care intervention and its implementation for older adults living with dementia newly admitted to a nursing home for post acute care. This study will serve as foundational knowledge for developing an empirically derived palliative care model for palliative care for people with Alzheimer disease and related dementia in nursing homes receiving skilled nursing facilities care.
Implementation Outcomes of a Telehealth Palliative Care Model for Persons with
Dementia in Post-acute Care
This is a single-arm pilot study for an embedded pragmatic clinical trial with the
objective of assessing the implementation outcomes of the telehealth alliative care consultation in post-acute care for people with dementia and their care partners. The findings of this study will act as a valuable reference for enhancing telehealth palliative care consultations in post-acute care facilities and evaluating the acceptability, appropriateness, intervention fidelity, and nursing home adoption of palliative care consultation care grounded in the RE AIM model.
IMPACT Patient & Caregiver Relevant Outcomes Core (PCRO)
The patient and caregiver relevant outcomes core aimed to develop and support the use of patient and caregiver-reported outcomes in the design and conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) for people living with dementia. To achieve this goal, the core members created an online library of clinical outcome assessments relevant to ePCTs, including patient- reported, caregiver-reported, observer-reported, performance, and clinical-reported outcomes.
An AI-based Method to Assess and Monitor the Cognitive Impairment and Depression in Persons with Dementia
This project is funded by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Institute for Clinical & Translational Research (ICTR) Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) Grant Program. This pilot study will investigate the feasibility of a new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solution to closely monitor and track the progression of the cognitive function and depression in people with dementia based on their speech and conversations they have with other people. The goal is to lay the foundation of future “just-in-time” interventions to improve the care and quality-of-life for people with dementia. This project will also spark a new interdisciplinary research collaboration among investigators with expertise in AI and automated speech/language processing (Dr. Pan, UMBC Information Systems), Dementia patient care (Dr. Carpenter, UMD School of Nursing), and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (Dr. Sefcik, Drexel College of Nursing and Health Professionals).