International progress in creating palliative medicine as a specialized discipline

This chapter begins with a retrospective of the international progress made in creating palliative medicine as a specialized discipline. There is growing evidence of increased palliative care development around the world, but progress is uneven and many regions are still underserved. The next section puts this progress into a global context, giving evidence of varying levels of palliative care development around the world. In the final section palliative medicine is discussed in the context of countries that grant it specialty or sub–specialty recognition. The 35 countries with the highest...

This chapter begins with a retrospective of the international progress made in creating palliative medicine as a specialized discipline. There is growing evidence of increased palliative care development around the world, but progress is uneven and many regions are still underserved. The next section puts this progress into a global context, giving evidence of varying levels of palliative care development around the world. In the final section palliative medicine is discussed in the context of countries that grant it specialty or sub–specialty recognition. The 35 countries with the highest level of palliative care development are also those in which the most substantial strides have been made towards specialty recognition for palliative medicine. The International Observatory on End of Life Care archives contain evidence of just 17 countries worldwide that have established palliative medicine as a specialty or sub–specialty.