Palliative care as a specialist health field draws upon a body of evidence to support its practice. As a multidisciplinary field it uses research from different academic disciplines and research traditions. Some of this work comes from allied medical areas such as oncology or geriatrics. Other knowledge is contributed by disciplines such as psychology, social work and occupational therapy.

These pages are designed to support clinical practice by summarising the state of the evidence and by providing clinicians with access to relevant literature where possible. They are intended to be dynamic being modified as the evidence base evolves.

The content for these pages has been developed following a search of multiple literature databases for systematic reviews relevant to the clinical topic. From this basis, the key issues, limitations and contexts for practice have been summarised. Each page also provides links to sources of clinical guidance and ways to find out more.

The specific populations included in these pages were identified following discussion with the National Advisory Group.

This page was created on 14 May 2008