# Mentored Patient Oriented Research in Improving Surrogate Decision Making for Patients with Advanced Respiratory Failure

> **NIH NIH K24** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $116,717

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The goal of this Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research is to enhance the ability of
Dr. Douglas White to train, mentor, and support the career development of clinician-scientists focused on
developing and testing interventions to improve surrogate decision making for incapacitated patients with
advanced respiratory failure. Patients with acute respiratory failure and a poor prognosis often receive
intensive, burdensome treatments near the end of life that are inconsistent with their values and
preferences. This is an important public health problem because 1) patient-centered care near the end of
life is a central aspect of ethical, humane care, and 2) overtreatment near the end of life contributes to
the disproportionate costs of medical care near the end of life in the U.S. Although the scope of the
problems is well documented, there are few evidence-based interventions to improve patient outcomes.
Solving this problem will require the collaboration of scientists with expertise in decision science,
organizational behavior, and health services research. Dr. White is extremely well positioned to lead
these efforts. He is a midcareer investigator with a mature, NIH-funded program of research on surrogate
decision making in acute respiratory failure. He has an extensive track record of successful mentoring in
patient-oriented research. He has assembled a team of senior scientists and collaborators to accomplish
the proposed research and mentoring plan. He will increase his skills as a mentor and expand his
scientific expertise by participating in targeted career development activities in mentoring, organizational
science, and the psychology of group decision making. The scientific goal of this proposal is for Dr. White
and his mentees to use the existing data and infrastructure of his ongoing R01s to develop new lines of
research exploring the roles of interprofessional team functioning and group decision making on
outcomes for incapacitated patients with acute respiratory failure. In Aim 1 the team will conduct a mixed
methods study to characterize clinicians’ attitudes and actual practices related to interprofessional team
collaboration in providing decision support to surrogates of patients with advanced respiratory failure (Aim
1a), then conduct exploratory analyses examining associations between team functioning and outcomes
of patients with advanced respiratory failure (Aim 1b). In Aim 2 they will use the largest dataset in
existence of audiorecorded clinician-family conferences about goals of care in ICUs to determine whether
and how clinicians elicit the values and preferences of incapacitated patients from surrogates (Aim 2a),
then conduct exploratory analyses examining associations with patient outcomes (Aim 2b). Together,
these scientific aims and career development activities will expand Dr. White’s ability to train the next
generation of patient-oriented researchers in developing interventions to improve su...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10000984
- **Project number:** 5K24HL148314-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Douglas B White
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $116,717
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10000984

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10000984, Mentored Patient Oriented Research in Improving Surrogate Decision Making for Patients with Advanced Respiratory Failure (5K24HL148314-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10000984. Licensed CC0.

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