Contribution from IAHPC Board Member Stein Kaasa, MD, PhD, Norway

Palliative care is growing as is the demand for services in many health care systems around the world. Hopefully there is common agreement that palliative care covers a need – a patient and a family need – that is independent of the diagnosis (cancer and non cancer), location of care (in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices or in the patient’s homes), social class and place of residence. Access to palliative care should be considered a basic system of health care delivery that is independent of the health care system (governmental/social, mixed or private), the finances of the patient and his/her family and of race, sex or any other personal variables.

Access to palliative care is considered a human right and is part of the globalisation of medicine around the world. This is one of the most powerful and exhilarating challenges and opportunities in the 21st Century. Within the globalisation process, it is important to quickly take advantage of what others have developed, learned, and experienced in clinical practice as well as in research. It is not necessary to start all over again from scratch, but we should learn from the wisdom, knowledge and skills that are already available.

Do we need a change in strategy? Do we need to move from continually describing the common universal needs for palliative care within our health care systems or should be begin to take action and intervene? Yes, it is time to implement palliative care in all health care systems. The scope of palliative care should not be identical in each, but adapted to national and local needs. After implementation, it is necessary to follow up with quality assurance programs and clinical research to identify needed refinements and changes.

In order to take advantage of globalisation, a common language is needed to describe (or classify) palliative care patients, interventions, health care programs and outcomes. I would like to invite you all to take part in this “language development” endeavor by visiting the homepage of the European Association of Palliative Care Research Network (EAPC RN) at http://eapcrn.org/ and also the newly established research centre “European Palliative Care Research Centre” (PRC) http://www.ntnu.no/prc.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to international collaboration in 2010.

Trondheim 2009-12-22

Stein Kaasa
Professor in Palliative Medicine

To learn more about Dr. Kaasa, please visit our website at: http://www.hospicecare.com/Bio/kaasa.htm