Palliative Care, An Issue of Primary Care Clinics in Office Practice

Palliative care focuses on reducing the severity of disease symptoms in order to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. Primary care providers are often the coordinators of palliative care and need to be well versed in all aspects of providing palliative care. This issue covers important topics in palliative care, such as prognosis, management of several end-stage diseases, and management of severe symptoms. The issue could be helpful to a physician studying for subspecialty certification in hospice and palliative medicine.