Studies show that integrating palliative medicine as soon as possible shortens the amount of time patients spend in intensive care, although mortality remains the same. With this in mind, one of the researchers’ goals in EPIC is to reduce the time patients spend in the ICU – which not only has benefits from a health economics standpoint, but is also of immeasurable value for the patients themselves.

“When patients with severe and incurable diseases receive optimum palliative care, then they hopefully won’t have to spend their last days in the ICU, unless there’s a very serious reason. This can be a blessing for them and their families during this extremely critical and highly vulnerable phase at the end of life,” Spies says.

“And palliative care is also helpful for people with severe or chronic disease who are not approaching the end of life. People often confuse palliative medicine with hospice, but they aren’t the same. About half of patients can be discharged and go home with specialized palliative treatment. So improving palliative care across the board would benefit all of the patients in the ICU.”