BOSTON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A team of pediatric palliative care specialists is calling for increased efforts to address the needs of chronic conditions of U.S. children.
Senior author Dr. Joanne Wolfe of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston and a team of international pediatric palliative care specialists outline steps to further the development of pediatric palliative care standards and objectives -- something that may have lagged compared to adult palliative care.
"If we do not become a community of interested individuals moving this field forward, there isn't going to be the opportunity systematically to figure out ways to do a better job of taking care of these children and their families," Wolfe said in a statement.
There are 300,000 U.S. children living with complex chronic conditions that may lead death in childhood or premature death and who may benefit from pediatric palliative care, reported the paper published in the journal The Lancet.
Wolfe said some 55,000 U.S. children die each year of chronic illness and would benefit from efforts to: reduce suffering and promote hope and healing; acknowledge professionals' responses and needs for support and promote needed changes by cultivating educational programs.
