title: Palliative Care Medical Education in European Universities: A Descriptive Study and Numerical Scoring System Proposal for Assessing Educational Development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The lack of palliative medicine (PM) education has been identified as a barrier to the development of the discipline. A number of international institutions have called for its implementation within undergraduate medical curricula.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objectives are to describe the situation of undergraduate PM education in Europe and to propose a scoring system to evaluate its status.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive study was conducted with data provided by key experts from countries of the World Health Organization European Region (n = 53). A numerical scoring system was developed through consensus techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-three countries (81%) provided the requested information. In 13 countries (30%), a PM course is taught in all medical schools, being compulsory in six of them (14%). In 15 countries (35%), PM is taught in at least one university. In 14 countries (33%), PM is not taught within medical curricula. A full professor of PM was identified in 40% of countries. Three indicators were developed to construct a scale (rank 0-100) of educational development: 1) proportion of medical schools that teach PM (weight = 32%); 2) proportion of medical schools that offer PM as a compulsory subject (weight = 40%); 3) total number of PM professors (weight = 28%). The highest level of PM educational development was found in Israel, Norway, the U.K., Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, and Ireland.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PM is taught in a substantial number of undergraduate medical programs at European universities, and a qualified teaching structure is emerging; however, there is a wide variation in the level of PM educational development between individual countries.
authors.affiliation: ATLANTES Research Programme, Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. Electronic address: jmcarrascog@unav.es.
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine & Palliative Care Program, Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.affiliation: ATLANTES Research Programme, Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garralda
authors.affiliation: ATLANTES Research Programme, Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Woitha
authors.affiliation: Department of Palliative Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Elsner
authors.affiliation: Palliative Care Department, Academic University Hospital Lyon Sud HCL, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Marilène
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filbet
authors.affiliation: Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ellershaw
authors.affiliation: School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Dumfries, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: ATLANTES Research Programme, Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Centeno
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005060:Europe; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D065126:Palliative Medicine / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Palliative medicine; WHO European Region; development; medical education; palliative care; undergraduate education