2020_01_15_ICS_natalia_arias

Natalia Arias-Casais, PhD student of the ATLANTES Programme of theCulture and Society Institute (ICS) of the University of Navarra, has defended her doctoral thesis entitled 'Mapping study on Palliative Care Development in 54 European Countries', which she has developed in the framework of the doctoral program of Applied Medicine and Biomedicine of the School of Medicine. 

In his research, Arias-Casais has assessed the development of palliative care in the European region and its integration into national health systems. He also explored for the first time the extent of paediatric palliative care and, after consulting 24 international experts, proposed 25 indicators to estimate the development of this discipline. 

In addition, it has established 27 indicators to analyse their integration in the areas of primary care, cardiology, oncology, elderly care and volunteer activities, as well as paediatrics. The results of the doctoral thesis have been published in the Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe 2019 coordinated by the ATLANTES Programme.

To do so, the new doctor conducted interviews and electronic surveys with 321 experts from 51 European countries. She estimated that there are around 6,400 specialized palliative care services, although half of the countries in the region have less than 0.7 palliative services per 100,000 inhabitants - according to the association European Palliative Care Network, the figure should reach 2 services per 100,000 inhabitants. Thus, the researcher regretted that some 5 million Europeans die each year in need of palliative care and more than 177,000 of them are children.

Increasing global demand

"The increase in the need for palliative care makes development of extreme urgency the subject of a global strategy, its implementation and assessment", he said. According to a recent study published in Lancet Global Health, an 87% increase in suffering related to serious illness is expected by 2060. 

Thus, they have considered this research to be of vital importance for the promotion of palliative care. In fact, the association International Association of Palliative Care and Care Facilities (IAHPC) has used results from this research during official meetings of the World Health Organisation.

In the framework of his doctoral thesis , Arias-Casais carried out a research stay at the University Hospital of Bonn (Germany) under the supervision of Lukas Radbruch, president of the board board of the IAHPC and director of the hospital's department Palliative Medicine. There he was able to study the trends of development palliative care in Europe and the consumption of opioids in this region.