Historically, the concept of palliative care has been limited to hospice and end-of-life services.
Recently, palliative care has been expanded to emphasize its integration throughout an
illness. We suggest that palliative care provides an opportunity to prevent illness. Palliative
care providers can effectively reduce the risk of illness in families by employing methods
and strategies of preventive medicine. We illustrate three such cases. Patients and survivors
may benefit from appropriate recognition and referral to prevent potential medical, social,
and psychological problems.
For preventive medicine to become fully exploited by palliative care providers, curricula
will need to be developed. Risk assessment indicators of heritable and acquired conditions
will define core functions of this educational process. Relevant topics should encompass basic
preventive medicine methods, methods to disseminate assigned risk to the palliative care
team, and referral mechanisms to specialists with expertise in the identified area(s) of concern.
Opportunities to integrate preventive care into end-of-life services will create a new dimension
for comprehensive palliative care.
