Timely palliative care prevents suffering
16th October 2024
Integrating palliative care into oncology – what does the evidence show?
On Tuesday 1st October the Institute was delighted to welcome Dr David Hui from MD Anderson in Texas to deliver the 2024 Cicely Saunders International lecture.
Dr Hui’s presentation outlined concepts of palliative care, working from the first principles of palliative care developed by Dame Cicely Saunders, Balfour Mount and other pioneers, and demonstrated how research evidence shows that palliative care not only treats suffering, but when delivered in a timely way it prevents suffering.
Stigma around death and dying create a negative feedback loop that results in late referrals and early death. In contrast strong research evidence shows that earlier referrals disrupt this feedback loop and deliver more benefits: more supportive and palliative care for patients, more opportunity to educate clinicians, more evidence for research and more opportunities to improve leadership and health systems. It therefore benefits not only individual patients and their families, but also healthcare professionals and the wider healthcare system.
Private insurance companies in USA now advocate for palliative care, as it avoids costly and potentially harmful interventions. Dr Hui reflected on the ground-breaking research in 2010 that demonstrated how palliative care improves survival. Dr Hui concluded that effective supportive and palliative care should be timely, interdisciplinary, personalised and appropriate to the setting, whether virtual or in-person.
The lecture is available to watch now on the Institute’s YouTube channel Cicely Saunders International Annual Lecture 2024 – Dr David Hui – YouTube