New Perspectives in Palliative Care: Opportunities and Challenges
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 28
Special Issue Editors
Interests: palliative care; health innovation; health planning; health policy; quality of life; patient care team; chronic disease; shared decision team; health educations
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Palliative care has undergone a significant transformation in recent decades, evolving beyond traditional end-of-life settings to a holistic, patient-centered approach that supports individuals with chronic, progressive, and life-threatening illnesses. Recent advances include the incorporation of multidisciplinary care teams, early integration of palliative care into treatment pathways, and culturally sensitive approaches that respect patients’ values and preferences.
Despite these developments, palliative care is still associated with substantial challenges. In many regions, access to essential services remains limited, professional training is inconsistent, and there are persistent misconceptions about palliative care. There is also a need for innovative research that can inform policy decisions, optimize resource allocation, and facilitate the creation of care models that are responsive to diverse social, cultural, and ethical contexts.
Emerging insights into quality-of-life metrics, symptom management strategies, caregiver support, and telepalliative care are reshaping clinical practices and opening up new avenues for research and implementation. However, global disparities highlight the necessity of evidence-based frameworks that can be adapted and adopted across a range of settings.
In this Special Issue, we invite both researchers and practitioners to contribute their knowledge and experience, presenting evidence and perspectives that reflect new insights and future challenges in the field of palliative care. We are seeking original research articles, reviews, and conceptual papers examining novel practices, trends, models of care, educational programs, and policies that aim to strengthen and expand access to high-quality palliative care worldwide.
Potential topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Innovative models of palliative care delivery in community or institutional settings.
- Integration of palliative care in oncology, geriatrics, or chronic disease management.
- Policy initiatives and health system strategies aiming to improve palliative care access.
- Cross-cultural and ethical considerations in palliative care practice.
- Digital health and telemedicine applications in palliative care.
- Educational strategies for training multidisciplinary teams in palliative care.
- The experiences of patients and caregivers across the care continuum.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Marcelle Miranda da Silva
Dr. Sônia Silva Marçon
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- palliative care
- hospice and palliative care nursing
- patient education as topic
- quality of life
- pain management
- advance care planning
- caregivers
- interdisciplinary communication
- health policy
- culture competency
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