Palliative care is specialized medical care focused on relieving the symptoms and stress of a serious illness and improving quality of life, in alignment with a patient’s individual goals, values, and priorities. Although palliative care consultation is recommended for millions of Americans with serious illnesses, many patients aren’t referred to palliative care or only receive a consultation at the end of life. Evidence shows that early palliative care consultation could help many patients with chronic serious illnesses better understand their diagnosis and align their treatment choices to their individual care goals. 

The largest-ever study of palliative care led by researchers Dr. Scott Halpern and Dr. Katherine Courtright of University of Pennsylvania demonstrates that a default palliative care consultation is an effective strategy to give more hospitalized patients the opportunity to benefit from palliative care sooner. We are talking to the researchers to understand who should get specialized palliative care, when they should get it, what does “early” really mean and what is the impact the recent study will have on palliative care.