Do specialist palliative care teams improve outcomes for cancer patients?
Hearn J; Higginson IJ Department of Palliative Care and Policy, King’s College School of Medicine and Dentistry and St Christopher’s Hospice, London, UK. julie.hearn@kcl.ac.uk The objective of the study was to determine whether teams providing specialist palliative care improve the health outcomes of patients with advanced cancer and their families or carers when compared to conventional services. The study involved a systematic literature review of published research. The source of the data included studies identified from a systematic search of computerized databases (Medline, psychINFO, CINAHL and BIDS to the end of 1996), hand-searching specialist palliative care journals, and studying bibliographies and reference lists. The inclusion criteria for articles were that the study considered the use of specialist palliative care teams caring for patients with advanced cancer. Articles were assessed and data extracted and synthesized, with studies graded according to design. A variety of
