Palliative care consists of providing holistic care to those suffering from an advanced illness, using a methodology that promotes conceiving each reality as a whole, distinct from the sum of its component parts.
Therefore, this care focuses on comprehensive care for the sick person, taking into account not only his physical condition, but also his emotional, social and spiritual well-being. This palliative care is also based on scientific evidence.
Research in Medicine is to seek answers to the questions posed by the health problems of human beings, and therefore research must always be present as an attitude in clinical practice. Whatever the specialty or the level of care, medicine is constantly asking itself new questions in its mission to serve humanity.
We could say that research is a moral imperative for the community formed by health professionals and especially for doctors.
If we want research in the 21st century to respond to the needs of a more humanized medicine, it is necessary to transfer the biopsychosocial model to the field of research.
This approach, which focuses on the most genuinely human dimension, is essential to understanding the patient and his way of reacting to illness and suffering. This is why qualitative research should be encouraged.
Setting priorities for medical research is a matter of social ethics that has not always been given due attention. An example of this are the figures provided by the World Health Organization: only 5% of global spending on health research is related to the needs of developing countries, which suffer 93% of premature mortality.
Research into palliative care and pain treatment is still underfunded and needs to be further promoted. The quality of life of those suffering from chronic, degenerative or terminal illnesses is already a challenge that will only become more serious in the future.
Research should help to find better ways of dealing with the morbidity, disability and dependence that prolonged life entails.
Physicians should always have the patient as their first interest and research should be in the patient’s best interest; in the event of a conflict of interest, the patient’s interest should always prevail.
Dr. Jacinto Bátiz Cantera and Dr. Javier Rocafort Gil
Co-directors of the Chair of Palliative Care Pía Aguirreche Foundation
Francisco de Vitoria University
