Asia Pacific Palliative Care Network webinar
5th November 2025
The Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN) hosted a highly engaging webinar on Palliative Assessment Instruments on 16 September 2025, attracting more than 200 participants from across the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The event featured presentations from Professor Irene Higginson and Dr Mevhibe Hocaoglu of the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, who shared expertise on global best practices and innovations in outcome measurement for palliative care.
Their presentation explored the foundations of high-quality assessment in palliative care, including the MORECare Statement on good research practice and the COSMIN Standards for evaluating health measurement tools. The speakers introduced participants to the Integrated Palliative Outcome Scale (IPOS) and the broader POS family of measures, explaining their development, validation, and application in clinical care, research, and policy. They also traced the journey from early instruments such as STAS to POS and IPOS, emphasising how outcome measures can strengthen compassionate, person-centred care by focusing on what matters most to patients and families.
Examples from across the region—including collaborations in India, Vietnam, and New Zealand—illustrated how culturally adapted tools and data-driven methods, such as machine learning applied to patient-reported outcomes, are supporting service improvement and more timely, personalised care.
Participants described the session as informative, relevant, and inspiring, noting its practical value for enhancing evidence-based care and service evaluation in the Asia Pacific context.
Cicely Saunders International and the Cicely Saunders Institute look forward to building on these discussions and developing further collaborations across the Asia Pacific region to strengthen the use of outcome measures and improve palliative care worldwide.
Watch the full session here: APHN Webinar – Palliative Assessment Instruments