Progress in palliative care in Israel: comparative mapping and next steps

Palliative care aims to provide quality of life for those with serious illnesses by attending to the illness-prompted physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of patients and their families. It has ancient roots in medicine; its modern iteration began against the backdrop of new cures and life-sustaining technology which challenged conceptions of how to respect the sanctity of life.The first modern hospice was created by Saunders; it provided proof that palliative care works, and this has occurred in Israel as well (the first step). Another key step is usually skills development among clinicians; in Israel, few education and training opportunities exist so far. Specialty recognition also has not yet occurred in Israel. Service development remains limited and a major shortage of services exists, compared to the US. Research capacity in Israel is also limited. Policy to develop and sustain palliative care in Israel is underway; in 2009, the Ministry of Health established policy for implementing palliative care. However, it still lacks a financially viable infrastructure.We conclude that palliative care in Israel is emerging but has far to go. Adequate resource allocation, educational guidelines, credentialed manpower and specialty leadership are the key factors that palliative care development in Israel needs.The profession of medicine is in constant evolution. With each new development, the health service delivery infrastructure, healthcare policies, clinical providers, and patient population all need to respond in order to implement the development. During the decades of rapidly occurring scientific breakthroughs, translation of discovery into technology for use in existing specialty practices was the main form of development and adaptation. Occasionally, however, a new specialty is created. This is the case for palliative care.Ironically, palliation of suffering is perhaps the most ancient and essential feature of medicine. During the scientific era of the twe