Loading...

Developing a Roadmap for Goals of Care Conversations at Duke (2024-2025)

The Bass Connections team examined how healthcare providers can better communicate with seriously ill patients about their goals of care, a crucial step in ensuring treatment aligns with patients’ values and preferences. Many such decisions are currently made without open discussion, leading to increased side effects, financial strain and diminished quality of life. Through the goalconcordant.care initiative, a partnership between Duke Health and Duke University, the team sought to strengthen systems for facilitating goals of care (GOC) conversations across the health system.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, the team researched effective feedback interventions in healthcare and proposed strategies to enhance an existing GOC Feedback Intervention at Duke Health. Their recommendations included electronic health record pop-ups to identify high-priority patients, a one-time educational session for clinicians, positive reinforcement to encourage best practices, and benchmarking against national standards. These strategies were compiled into a poster aimed at improving both the frequency and quality of GOC conversations.

Beyond the group project, students collaborated closely with mentors in the goalconcordant.care lab, producing posters, presentations, manuscripts and journal articles. Together, their work advanced efforts to standardize and strengthen patient-provider communication, with intended impacts including higher rates of documented care discussions, improved clinician feedback systems and more consistent alignment of treatment with patient goals.

Timing

Fall 2024 – Summer 2025

Team Outputs

Proposed Strategies to Improve Goals of Care Conversation Rates at Duke (Poster presentation at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 16, 2025)

This Team in the News

Meet the Winners of the 2024 Bass Connections Student Research Awards
 

See earlier related team, Developing a Roadmap for Goals of Care Conversations at Duke Health (2023-2024).

Image: Goals of care, by Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine

Team Leaders

  • David Casarett, School of Medicine: General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine: Geriatrics
  • Erin Eckert, School of Medicine: Geriatrics
  • Kiira Lyons, School of Medicine: Geriatrics

Undergraduate Team Members

  • Saisha Dhar, Neuroscience (BS); Global Health (AB2)
  • Julia Gambino, Biology (BS)
  • Meghna Katyal, Biology (BS)
  • Sitara Kumar, Biology (BS)
  • Nikhita Nanduri, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Astha Ray, Biology (BS)
  • Yurika Sakai, Biology (BS)
  • Lauren Tolbert, Biology (AB)

Team Contributors

  • Deepshikha Ashana, School of Medicine: Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
  • Sharron Docherty, School of Nursing
  • Margaret Johnson, School of Medicine: Neurosurgery
  • Brystana Kaufman, Fuqua School of Business: Health Sector Management Program, School of Medicine: Population Health Sciences
  • Thomas Leblanc, School of Medicine: Hematology
  • Monica Lemmon, School of Medicine: Pediatrics: Neurology
  • Jessica Ma, School of Medicine: General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine: Geriatrics
  • Katherine Ramos, School of Medicine: Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine: Psychiatry: Behavioral Medicine
  • Sharla Rent, School of Medicine: Pediatrics, School of Medicine: Pediatrics: Neonatology
  • Judith Vick, School of Medicine: General Internal Medicine

Themes