Lars E Eriksson

This project aims to create LGBTQ+ inclusive end-of-life (EoL) care using findings from the applicant’s Forte-funded postdoc research. Despite advances in LGBTQ+ rights, inequities persist in EoL-care for LGBTQ+ people, driven by factors such as limited intergenerational social support, minority stress, and a lack of LGBTQ+ competency among care staff. The concept of “queering the death system” refers to how LGBTQ+ people improve their own EoL experiences, for example by creating informal caring networks. EoL-care staff can contribute to queering the death system by implementing LGBTQ+ inclusive EoL-care practices, yet research shows that they require support to do so. This project responds to these societal needs by bringing together LGBTQ+ and EoL-care stakeholders to create partnerships, exchange knowledge, and implement LGBTQ+ inclusive EoL-care practices and education. “DöBra Rainbow Cafés” will serve as a platform for this work. These cafés were initially developed as part of the applicant’s research to create LGBTQ+ community support around EoL issues. In this impact project, cafés will be spaces in which LGBTQ+ and EoL-care stakeholders come together to develop LGBTQ+ inclusive EoL-care based on research in this field. Two café-formats will be developed: group-format cafés focus on sharing experiences and developing inclusive practices, while roundtable-format cafés concentrate on policy change. The cafés aim to create impact at three levels: personal/group (building partnerships, exchange knowledge, develop ideas for LGBTQ+ inclusive EoL-care), action-oriented (implementing LGBTQ+ EoL-care practices and education), and strategy-oriented (influencing policies). By centering LGBTQ+ voices and using a participatory approach that focuses on resilience and action, the project addresses persistent inequities in EoL-care and aims to create long-term impact towards LGBTQ+ inclusive EoL-care.

This nursing science precision health project, focus on complex interactions among biological, social, and behavioural factors, and their effects on outcomes. By researching patients’ experience of symptoms and linking these to biological data, we aim to increase the sensitivity and specificity of LC diagnosis and to aid in investigate molecular determinants of common symptoms, e.g. fatigue and cachexia. Furthermore, we aim to develop our measures for use to monitor treatment response in patients receiving immunotherapy. With previous VR funding (2016-1712, 2019-1222), we developed an interactive questionnaire, Peklung, to generate detailed descriptions about early health changes in LC and used it to collect data from ∼700 patients at diagnostic LC work-up

in parallel we also collected plasma samples from  these patients. We apply here for continued VR funding to link patient-reported data from Peklung with biomolecular and imaging profiles, to determine biomarkers of LC and other lung diseases, and to investigate new molecular determinants of symptoms with unclear aetiology and mechanism, e.g. fatigue, cachexia. Establishing symptomatology related to early LC can: decrease diagnostic delay, with increased chance of curative treatment options and shorter time spans to curative or palliative treatment, thus reducing distress for patients/families

connect detailed symptom with omics data to increase understanding of mechanisms of poorly understood symptoms.