Use of Essential Medicines for Pain Relief and Palliative Care: A Global Consensus Process.

Context: The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines includes 24 medications under the section Medicines for Pain and Palliative Care (EML). The Lancet Commission on Pain and Palliative Care developed the Lancet Essential Package (LEP), including 35 medications designed to alleviate serious health-related suffering worldwide.

Objectives: This study aims to provide recommendations on the appropriate use of essential of medicines in palliative care.

Opioid prescribing for cancer pain in Latin America: systematic review.

Objective: To explore opioid prescribing patterns for cancer pain in Latin America (LA).

Methods: A systematic review was conducted adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Relevant databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, LILACS and Scielo, were searched from inception to June 2023.

Palliative care interventional research in general practice: a narrative review of factors affecting research conduct.

Background And Objective: The majority of palliative care provision occurs in general practice, yet only 9% of palliative care clinical trials were conducted in this setting. Evidence from hospital and specialist settings is not readily transferable to general practice, as the population, context and care processes are vastly different. Conducting interventional palliative care research in general practice settings is subject to many challenges and barriers.

Global Assessment of Palliative Care Need: Serious Health-Related Suffering Measurement Methodology.

Context: Inequities and gaps in palliative care access are a serious impediment to health systems especially in low- and middle-income countries and the accurate measurement of need across health conditions is a critical step to understanding and addressing the issue. Serious Health-related Suffering (SHS) is a novel methodology to measure the palliative care need and was originally developed by The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. In 2015, the first iteration - SHS 1.

Conscientious objection and barriers to abortion within a specific regional context - an expert interview study.

Background: While most countries that allow abortion on women's request also grant physicians a right to conscientious objection (CO), this has proven to constitute a potential barrier to abortion access. Conscientious objection is regarded as an understudied phenomenon the effects of which have not yet been examined in Germany. Based on expert interviews, this study aims to exemplarily reconstruct the processes of abortion in a mid-sized city in Germany, and to identify potential effects of conscientious objection.

Systematic Review on Barriers to Access Opioid Analgesics for Cancer Pain Management from the Health Worker Perspective.

The increasing incidence of oncological diseases creates a corresponding need for effective cancer pain management (CPM). The lack of access to and availability of opioid analgesics in most countries leads to avoidable suffering. This systematic review aims to identify barriers to accessing opioids, as described in literature that reflects the perspective of health-care workers.

Access to cancer pain management in Ecuador from health workers' perspective: a qualitative study.

Ecuador is facing increasing health-related suffering due to cancer; however, the distributed opioid analgesic in the country is below the global average. This study explores the access to cancer pain management (CPM) from the healthcare professionals' perspective in a middle-income country. Thirty problem-centered interviews with healthcare providers were conducted in six cancer facilities and were analyzed thematically.

How to Advance Palliative Care Research in South America? Findings From a Delphi Study.

Context: Progress in palliative care (PC) necessarily involves scientific development. However, research conducted in South America (SA) needs to be improved.

Objectives: To develop a set of recommendations to advance PC research in SA.

Barriers of Access to Opioid Medicines within the Context of Palliative Care in Latin America: The Perception of Health Professionals.

Different sets of barriers have been identified to explain the difficulties in the access and availability of opioid analgesics in palliative care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, including Latin America. To validate a structured questionnaire for the access to opioid medicines and to investigate the perception of health professionals regarding access barriers to opioid analgesics in 17 countries of the Latin American Region. Survey to identify the domains and barriers of access to opioid medicines according to health professionals, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists affiliated to institutions that provide palliative care in Latin America between August 2019 and October 2020.

Place of death and associated factors in 12 Latin American countries: A total population study using death certificate data.

Background: Little is known about place of death in Latin America, although this data are crucial for health system planning. This study aims to describe place of death and associated factors in Latin America and to identify factors that contribute to inter-country differences in place of death.

Methods: We conducted a total population observational study using death certificates of the total annual decedent populations in 12 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) for the most recent available year (2016, 2017, or 2018).

Feasibility of using death certificates for studying place of death in Latin America.

Objective: This paper assesses the availability and quality of death certificate data in Latin America and the feasibility of using these data to study place of death and associated factors.

Methods: In this comparative study, we collected examples of current official death certificates and digital data files containing information about all deaths that occurred during 1 year in 19 Latin American countries. Data were collected from June 2019 to May 2020.

Challenges in the Provision of Pediatric Palliative Care in Mexico: A Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey.

An enormous need for pediatric palliative care (PPC) has been reported, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the access to PPC is limited. This study identifies the current challenges in the provision of PPC and their severity from the perspective of healthcare professionals.

Cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean: recent advances and opportunities to move forward.

The increasing burden of cancer represents a substantial problem for Latin America and the Caribbean. Two Lancet Oncology Commissions in 2013 and 2015 highlighted potential interventions that could advance cancer care in the region by overcoming existing challenges. Areas requiring improvement included insufficient investment in cancer control, non-universal health coverage, fragmented health systems, inequitable concentration of cancer services, inadequate registries, delays in diagnosis or treatment initiation, and insufficient palliative services.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Palliative Care Workers: An International Cross-sectional Study.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate spread have affected countries in different ways. Healthcare workers, in particular, have been impacted by the pandemic and by these measures. This study aims to explore how COVID-19 has impacted on palliative care (PC) workers around the world.

Translation and Validation of the Spanish Version of the Spiritual Care Competence Questionnaire (SCCQ).

We aimed to validate the Spanish version of the Spiritual Care Competence Questionnaire (SCCQ) in a sample of 791 health care professionals from Spanish speaking countries coming principally from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Spain. Exploratory factor analysis pointed to six factors with good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.71 to 0.

Palliative Care in Latin America: Are We Making Any Progress? Assessing Development Over Time Using Macro Indicators.

Background: Monitoring and reporting palliative care development serves to identify progress as well as remaining challenges for improvement.

Aim: To report on the updated status of palliative care development in Latin America, develop and apply a new index to measure progress, and enable cross-country comparisons.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of the data collected for the first (2012) and second (2020) editions of the Atlas of Palliative Care in Latin America using indicators on Policy, Education, Access to Medicines and Service Provision.

How Universal Is Palliative Care in Colombia? A Health Policy and Systems Analysis.

Colombia's health sector reform has been recognized for its universal health (UHC) coverage scheme. However, this reform evolved without palliative care (PC), thereby omitting a core element of UHC. In this paper, we analyze the Colombian health system reform and health policies in relation to PC.

Insights from a community-based palliative care course: a qualitative study.

Background: The vast majority of medical students have no exposure to clinical palliative care encounters, especially in the community. Medical schools should respond to current challenges and needs of health systems by guaranteeing students adequate training that addresses palliative care needs of populations in different settings. The main purpose of this qualitative study was to capture the experiences of a select group of medical students' following a community-based PC course.

Palliative Care in Latin America: Are We Making Any Progress? Assessing Development Over Time Using Macro Indicators.

Background: Monitoring and reporting palliative care development serves to identify progress as well as remaining challenges for improvement.

Aim: To report on the updated status of palliative care development in Latin America, develop and apply a new index to measure progress, and enable cross-country comparisons.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of the data collected for the 1st (2012) and 2nd (2020) editions of the Atlas of Palliative Care in Latin America using indicators on Policy, Education, Access to Medicines and Service Provision.

Palliative Medicine Specialization in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis.

Background: Formal recognition of palliative medicine as a specialty has been one of the main drivers in the development of palliative care.

Aim: To provide a comparative, comprehensive overview on the status of palliative medicine as medical specialty across Latin America.

Methods: We conducted a comparative study of 19 Latin American countries.

The impact of COVID-19 on palliative care workers across the world: A qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions.

Objective: With over two million deaths and almost 100 million confirmed cases, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a "tsunami of suffering." Health care workers, including palliative care workers, have been severely impacted. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted palliative care workers around the world and describes the coping strategies they have adopted to face their specific situation.