ABSTRACT
This chapter broadly summarizes the current state of palliative medicine in the world. It summarizes the case for a future that rests on a response to three features: the needs of patients and families, demographic changes, and the physician role in palliative medicine as a distinct subspecialty. The chapter describes the challenges that palliative medicine must face in the future if it is to prosper. In such a model, an innovation is developed in one location and then gradually spreads to other institutions as its merits become known. The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine is the professional association for physicians in palliative medicine. For palliative medicine to prosper, health-care policy must place much greater emphasis on the care of people of all ages who are living with and dying from a range of serious chronic diseases.
