Macmillan Palliative Care Collaborative

|The Macmillan Palliative Care Collaborative (MacPaCC)| was started in 2004 as a partnership between Macmillan and academics at the universities of Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Cambridge and Warwick. 

An analysis published by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) in 2002 had revealed that research into supportive and palliative care accounted for only about 4% of direct cancer research expenditure by NCRI partner funders (Department of Health, Medical Research Council, Macmillan and Marie Curie).

Macmillan has long commissioned and used research from a range of sources, but this innovative group allows us to integrate research with development and implementation. Not only does it help to fill some of the gaps in research but it focuses above all on achieving better care for patients by providing evidence for service innovation and improvement.

The main achievements of the Macmillan Palliative Care Collaborative include: 

• Research and evaluation - In the first three years alone, a national audit of Gold Standards Framework (GSF) implementation was followed by an in-depth study within general practices. Since then, members have continued to undertake valuable research and evaluation into new models of care such as the Evaluation of the Midhurst Macmillan Specialist Community Palliative Care Service.   
• Evidence made available - Within eight years, members had published over 100 peer reviewed papers, 100 presentations, over 30 editorials and eight book chapters making their work available to the wider academic community as well as policy makers and service developers.
• Funding for further research - Strengthened by the Macmillan start-up funding, members succeeded in attracting sizeable extra grants to this under-researched field, including £400,000 from the National Institute of Health Research.
• A pool of expertise for today and the future - MacPaCC and Macmillan have developed a close and productive partnership, helping Macmillan to develop its own thinking and knowledge on supportive care. This means that Macmillan and other organisations can not only readily call on the group’s expertise but can also bring members in to evaluate new services.