Appendix A
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee will plan and host a 1-day workshop whose agenda will examine access to and equity of care for people with serious illness. The workshop will feature invited presentations and panel discussions on topics that may include
- Barriers that impede access to care for serious illness (e.g., advance care planning, palliative care, and hospice) among vulnerable populations and strategies to address those barriers;
- Strategies to build trust and effectively engage patients, families, and caregivers in diverse cultural, ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic environments, in order to communicate with patients and families in a culturally competent manner regarding expectations and values related to end-of-life care and to ensure that treatment is aligned with preferences;
- Approaches to enhancing the diversity of the workforce providing care to people with serious illness;
- Models of care delivery that currently serve vulnerable populations with serious illness, including public–private partnerships and community-level interventions, such as use of community health coaches for peer-to-peer interventions and partnering with faith-based organizations; and
- Research gaps and key questions for further research.
The planning committee will develop the agenda for the workshop, select speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. A proceedings of the presentations and discussions at the workshop will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.