Palliative Care Champions Are a Promising Solution to Meeting Patient Needs

Physician shortages have been projected for decades with the Association of American Medical Colleges most recently estimating a 42 600 to 120 000 physician shortage by 2030. The projected shortages are not evenly distributed across specialties with primary care more at risk for deficits than others. Despite growth in numbers, the specialty of hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) is not immune with shortages of 6000 to 18 000 physicians estimated in 2010 before an increase in hospital-based palliative care teams further raised demand. Despite increases in demand for HPM care, the pipeline of physician training has not grown accordingly. From the academic years 2013 to 2016, the number of HPM fellowship programs grew from 97 to 117, and training slots grew from 284 to 362.5 This small growth in training capacity does not tell the story of HPM’s broad appeal. American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) HPM certification has 10 primary sponsoring boards, easily the most for any subspecialty certificate

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