LAUSR

Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families who are faced with a life-threatening illness. As patients near the end of life, medicine struggles to balance care that is primarily curative in nature against care that primarily aims to improve the quality of remaining life. In some cases, little thought is given to the dying process, with care providers and families hesitating to acknowledge impending death and relinquish curative efforts. As a result, many espouse the notion that decedents who could have benefited from palliative care often do not receive such care. Brameld et al.1 and Morin et al.2 in two accompanying articles compare disease information on death certificates against pre-specified lists of International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes of those who might benefit from palliative care. This editorial will explore some of the challenges and solutions in identifying the need for palliative care in the population; it will also examine how the research and care community can take advantage of evolving technology to improve the match of care delivery and need.