Future strategies needed for palliative care.
Too many cancer patients have less than optimal care at the end of life, as measured by unrelieved pain, death in a setting other than home, and uncoordinated care. Solutions will require at least the following: (1) new models of care and better coordination of care; (2) new drugs or techniques; (3) better professional knowledge and dissemination of that knowledge; (4) facing the issue of death; and (5) acknowledgment of cost constraints. Cost constraints will lead to more gaps between the haves and have nots in the United States in the next 5 years.
Smith
T J
TJ
Division of Hematology/Oncology, Departments of Medicine and Health Administration, Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298-0230, USA. tsmith@hsc.vcu.edu
D001293:Attitude to Death; D003363:Cost Control; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000639:trends*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000639:trends