The progress of palliative care, like any other health discipline, is based on experience, formation and research. However, it’s well known for most of professionals, there are important difficulties for develop research projects in palliative care. Patient vulnerability, short expectancy of life, subjectivity of variables to asses and intervention of multiple factors in symptom perception are examples of limitations related with specific characteristics of terminal patient. The lack of a research culture in palliative care provokes deficiencies in methodological training and skills in most of teams. In other hand, a practice devoted mainly to care patients, a very limited relation with university and research organisations, a low interest of pharmaceutical industry, lack of specific funds and isolation of little teams are also factors that make difficult to develop research projects. One of the best ways to overcome these important problems is promote the collaboration between palliative care teams creating co-operative groups of research. The objectives of a multicenter group are provide formation and training, promote research designs, organize the field work and stimulate the collaboration of universities, public organisations or pharmaceutical laboratories. An important characteristic of co-operative groups of research, formed by health professionals, is keep a solid independent position based in some basic principles which must be agreed by his members. The research centred in needs of patients and ethical commitment considering the special situation of terminal patient are the main principles to guide the group. Encourage an interdisciplinary design, define subgroups devoted to study different areas of clinical interest and improve overall quality of services must be characteristics of a multicenter group. The collaboration rules between teams have to be based on tolerance of time availability determined by work pressure of every team. The group has to present the specific research guidelines to public institutions and universities in order to promote his participation in the projects and facilitate funds. An important role of group is to be an independent speaker front pharmaceutical industry, looking for a good balance between scientific interest of health teams and logical commercial priorities of industry. The development of multicenter group needs a strategic planning, divided in prudent phases and agreed between his members, in order to facilitate a progressive implementation of scientific committee and logistic structure.
Following these aims, goals and principles is emerging our co-operative group (CATPAL). We can evaluate the initial group experience as very positive in production of research projects, participation in clinical trials and enthusiastic collaboration of services, considering the multiple difficulties to carry out clinical research in teams devoted specially to care patients.