The recent establishment of the Australian Teletrial Program, funded by the Australian Government, facilitates the creation of trial clusters, with regional, rural, and remote sites connected to an urban primary research site via telehealth. In April 2024 the first Australian palliative care research teletrial network became active in Queensland, providing access to clinical trials for symptom control in advanced disease to all Queenslanders regardless of location. This transforms the scope of clinical trials and reduces health inequity.

A strategic implementation framework was used to construct the network, with a focus on collaboration and resource acquisition. Partnerships were established with relevant stakeholders such as the Queensland Regional Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre. Ethics and governance approval, grants, care pathways, supervision plans for research nurses, trial drug, and couriering services were obtained or created. Clinical Trial Research Agreements were negotiated with each of the fifteen Queensland Hospital and Health Services (HHS’s). The first of these was signed in April 2024, allowing the teletrial network to operate in the Queensland Central West HHS. Several more HHS’s will shortly become active, with a goal of eventually involving all Queensland HHS’s. Ongoing training, mentoring and support is provided.

Currently the network is being used to recruit to a clinical trial of medicinal cannabis for the relief of symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. Interested patients are referred by their usual palliative care team and, if eligible, participate in telehealth reviews in their home or at their local health service over a four-week period. Patients, carers, clinicians, and researchers are being invited to participate in qualitative research assessing the barriers, challenges, and experience of the teletrial network.

The successful construction of a Queensland palliative care research teletrial network has presented challenges due to geographical distance, the involvement of multiple health services and organisations, and local resource constraints. The difficulties that we have encountered, and the strategies that we have employed to resolve them, act as a model that other states and services can use in constructing their own teletrial network. Additionally, the qualitative data that we are collecting concerning stakeholder experience of the teletrial network will guide future use and ensure its sustainability, thereby transforming the scope of clinical palliative care trials in Queensland and reducing health inequity.