Trial reportBMC emergency medicine2021
Data from emergency medicine palliative care access (EMPallA): a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of specialty outpatient versus telephonic palliative care of older adults with advanced illness presenting to the emergency department.
Trial report in BMC emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03325985 (Emergency Medicine Palliative Care Access), which is not on this map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Emergency Medicine Palliative Care Access (EMPallA)
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loneliness among adults at the end of life: A systematic review of prevalence and correlates.Palliative medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Nurse-Delivered Telehealth in Home-Based Palliative Care: Integrative Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Needs-based triggers for timely referral to palliative care for older adults severely affected by noncancer conditions: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC palliative care · 2023Pooled it
- Predictors of Specialty Outpatient Palliative Care Utilization Among Persons With Serious Illness.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2024Trial
- Nurse-Led Telephonic Care Following Emergency Department Visits for Persons Living With Dementia and Their Care Partners: A Program Description.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Emergency Department-Initiated Hospice and Palliative Care Consultation Among Older Adults: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Telepalliative Care on Quality of Life, Symptom Management, and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Review
- Does Cognitive Function Influence the Benefits of Multicomponent Team Interventions?Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2026Article
- Nurse led telephonic palliative care versus specialty outpatient palliative care: pragmatic, randomised clinical trial.BMJ medicine · 2025Article
- Psychometric Properties of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General for Evaluating Quality of Life in Patients With Life-Limiting Illness in the Emergency Department.Journal of palliative medicine · 2024Article
- Considerations of Intersectionality for Older Adults with Palliative Care Needs in the Emergency Department: An Integrative Review.Current geriatrics reports · 2023Article
- Loneliness in older adults living with cancer: A scoping review of the quantitative and qualitative evidence on behalf of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology Nursing and Allied Health Interest Group.Journal of geriatric oncology · 2023Article
- Automatable end-of-life screening for older adults in the emergency department using electronic health records.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Observational
- Pragmatic clinical trial design in emergency medicine: Study considerations and design types.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe Emergency Medicine Palliative Care Access (EMPallA) trial is a large, multicenter, parallel, two-arm randomized controlled trial in emergency department (ED) patients comparing two models of palliative care: nurse-led telephonic case management and specialty, outpatient palliative care. This report aims to: 1) report baseline demographic and quality of life (QOL) data for the EMPallA cohort, 2) identify the association between illness type and baseline QOL while controlling for other factors, and 3) explore baseline relationships between illness type, symptom burden, and loneliness.
methodsPatients aged 50+ years with advanced cancer (metastatic solid tumor) or end-stage organ failure (New York Heart Association Class III or IV heart failure, end stage renal disease with glomerular filtration rate < 15 mL/min/m
resultsBetween April 2018 and April 3, 2020, 500 patients were enrolled. On average, end-stage organ failure patients had lower QOL as measured by the FACT-G scale than cancer patients with an estimated difference of 9.6 points (95% CI: 5.9, 13.3), and patients with multiple conditions had a further reduction of 7.4 points (95% CI: 2.4, 12.5), when adjusting for age, education level, race, sex, immigrant status, presence of a caregiver, and hospital setting. Symptom burden and loneliness were greater in end-stage organ failure than in cancer.
conclusionsThe EMPallA trial is enrolling a diverse sample of ED patients. Differences by illness type in QOL, symptom burden, and loneliness demonstrate how distinct disease trajectories manifest in the ED.
trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT03325985 . Registered October 30, 2017.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.