New Palliative Care Research Consortium to Tackle the Field’s Toughest Problems

In Hospice News, reporting on the establishment of a new NIH-funded palliative care research consortium called ASCENT (Advancing the Science of Palliative Care Research Across the Lifespan), Dr. Julia Frydman (Senior Medical Director at Thyme Care) emphasized the significance of this initiative. The consortium, supported by a $64 million five-year award, aims to produce data that can drive policy reform, better integration across care settings, and more equitable access to quality palliative care.

Frydman noted that current Medicare reimbursement models don’t sufficiently support the interdisciplinary nature of palliative care, and she hopes ASCENT’s work will strengthen the value case and help shape more sustainable funding models: 

“Palliative care has long been underfunded relative to its importance in the lives of patients and caregivers,” Frydman told Palliative Care News in an email. “ASCENT will help create the next generation of evidence and the next generation of investigators. For the field, this means a stronger foundation of data to advocate for policy change, better integration across care settings and more equitable access to high-quality palliative care nationwide. For patients and families, it means a future where comprehensive, goal-concordant support is the norm, not the exception.”