Palliative care and hospice has grown rapidly in the United States in recent years and is now poised to become a universally available approach to meeting the needs of the country’s sickest and most vulnerable patients. It is a central part of the solution to America’s health care crisis, since it improves the quality of care and reduces costs for a key population—those with serious, complex illnesses who, while they number less than 10 percent of patients, account for more than two-thirds of health care spending.
The anticipated shortage in trained professionals in this specialty has been well documented, being 10 times greater than the shortage of cardiologists. Providing formal educational offerings such as this symposium is an extraordinary opportunity for providers to learn new principles or hone previously learned skills.