First steps towards a palliative care research forum for Scotland

As academics in palliative care in Scotland (David Clark, Marie Fallon and Scott Murray) we are delighted to see the prominent place given to research in the recently-published Scottish Government Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care (2016-21). The Framework and the supporting evidence report not only draw heavily on recent academic studies, they also point to the need for a more coordinated approach to palliative care research in Scotland.

A key commitment

Days before the Framework was published in December 2015, Scottish Government colleagues, together with representation from the Chief Scientist’s Office (CSO) held a meeting in Edinburgh. A varied group of palliative care researchers was invited, from several institutions. Professor Craig White chaired the event and began by explaining that the Framework would contain the following commitment:

Commitment 5
We will strengthen and co-ordinate research and knowledge exchange across regions, institutions and disciplines by taking further action to support the establishment of a Scottish Research Forum for palliative and end of life care.

To see the rest of the post please follow this link to the End of Life Studies Blog at the University of Glasgow.