>> Prof. Voltz, how would you describe the status of health services research in palliative medicine in 2014?
Health services research is of course already being carried out in individual activities at individual chairs and institutions, but this research direction has not yet been approached in a structured manner. When I think of my own chair, which was initially funded by Cancer Aid and has now been taken over by the state, we research in many areas: We conduct basic research by describing the symptom of shortness of breath in more detail so that it can be understood in a therapeutically relevant way; Similarly, we research fundamental constructs such as the desire to die, the will to live or the fear of dying. In addition to this basic research, we carry out clinical studies, particularly on drug therapy for shortness of breath. And then there are the studies that can be assigned to the area of health services research.

You now held part of your congress on this topic together with the German Network for Health Services Research.
Among other things, we wanted to show that palliative medicine has established itself as an academic field and that health services research is an important topic. Palliative medicine has a difficult time as an academic subject in molecular-oriented faculties. In contrast, the more patient-oriented and therefore health care research-oriented faculties of palliative medicine are much more open-minded. In this respect, it is also a task of the congress to show that palliative medicine, as well as in connection with health services research, is a serious academic field.

If you dare to look abroad...
... I immediately think of the so-called “Liverpool Care Pathway”, which was developed by the palliat in the 90s

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Citation information: doi: 10.24945/MVF.04.14.1866-0533.1948