The primary aim of this study was to compare the ratios of specialized palliative care use to all cancer death using 2 methods: 1) total number of patients who received either of specialized palliative care services (unadjusted), and 2) number of patients after adjustment of potentially duplicated counts (adjusted). The research team obtained patient list from all specialized palliative care services, and counted the number of the patients who received any specialized palliative care services. The ratio of adjusted value to unadjusted value was 0.59, and had large region differences.Unadjusted values had, although overestimated, essentially similar trends in changes by year and differences in the regions. In conclusion, total number of patients who received either of specialized palliative care services could be simple and feasible indicator to roughly determine the activity of specialized palliative care services, but exact number of the patients who received specialized palliative care services should be determined on the basis of the patient lists without duplicated counts.

It is important to collect patients' and their families' opinions to provide good palliative care. This study aims to analyze the contents of free description provided by the survey for cancer patients and bereaved families, which was performed before the intervention of The Outreach Palliative Care Trial of Integrated Regional Model (OPTIM) study. Requests for and good points of cancer treatment and palliative care were collected and classified. 1,493 advanced cancer patients and 1,658 bereaved families in four areas received the questionnaire, and 271 patients and 550 families filled in the free description. Cancer patients and bereaved families had demands for improved communication with medical staff, improved quality of pain relief, financial support of treatment, more educational activities on palliative care, and improved cooperation within and outside hospitals. Palliat Care Res 2011; 6(2): 237-245

Introduction: Number of palliative care team increase every year, but the quality of team might differ from each other. We developed “Self-Check Program for Palliative Care Team” to assess and improve the quality of palliative care team. We report the result of the multi-center study to assess the feasibility of this program. Methods: We underwent the “Self-Check Program” as a trial at seven hospitals in Japan in February 2016. We took a questionnaire survey to team leaders and participants to assess the feasibility of this program. Results: Fifty-two medical staffs in six hospitals accomplished this program. Time scheduling and the integration of opinions from each team members were the difficulties came up from questionnaire survey. All team leaders and 87.8% of the participants answered that this program was effective to extract and improve the problem of the team. Also 83.3% of the team leaders were satisfied with the process of planning. Conclusion: Despite some difficulties, majority of the participants considering useful, this program is considered feasible.