Evidence for contemporary palliative care: Updating the CareSearch Clinical Evidence Summaries

An article written by Dr Madeleine Juhrmann, Research Fellow, CareSearch

For those providing care at the end of life, having access to high-quality, trustworthy evidence can make all the difference—supporting better decision-making, enhancing communication, and improving outcomes for patients and families.

CareSearch has long worked to ensure that health professionals across care settings can access timely and relevant palliative care evidence. Our Clinical Evidence Summaries are central to this commitment. Designed for clinicians, they synthesise high-level research—primarily from systematic reviews—into succinct, topic-based summaries that respond to the questions and challenges of daily practice.

Originally developed to bridge the gap between research and practice, the Clinical Evidence Summaries have become a valuable tool in clinical care, education, and training. Each summary provides evidence on a key topic such as pain, dyspnoea, or advance care planning, and translates it into accessible, actionable insights.

But evidence doesn’t stand still. Research grows, practice evolves, and care environments change. To remain relevant and meet the changing needs of the workforce, we recently launched a comprehensive update of the Clinical Evidence Summaries. This blog shares our approach and what’s next.

Updating for relevance and use

We began our update project by mapping the national and international evidence landscape—analysing guidelines, frameworks, and policy documents to identify gaps in existing topic coverage. We then revised the taxonomy of the summaries, updating topic categories and subheadings (e.g., pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches) to reflect current clinical priorities and support consistency across the topics. The process informed both the review of existing topics and the addition of three new ones:

• Patient autonomy, dignity, and choice
• Communication approaches
• Palliative care emergencies.

Collaboration at the core

We convened a multidisciplinary Advisory Group to guide the update with expertise across medicine, nursing, allied health, and academia. The group, which met regularly across 2024, was pivotal in shaping the revised taxonomy, assessing topic relevance, and reviewing content drafts. Their input also highlighted the need for more practical guidance relevant to each summary to support real-world decision-making. In response, we conducted an environmental scan to identify relevant clinical tools and resources. Each summary now links to a PDF listing these practical aids, helping clinicians apply evidence more directly to their work.  

New ways to access

To support varied user needs, we’re also developing a downloadable Compendium—bringing all the summaries together in a single offline document. Ideal for training, guideline development, or bedside reference, this new format will improve accessibility. Visit the Clinical Evidence Summaries page to register your interest to be notified when it’s released.

Looking ahead: Evaluation and engagement

With the updated summaries released in December 2024, we are turning to evaluation. A new study will explore how educators use palliative care evidence in their teaching and the role the Clinical Evidence Summaries play. This includes a national survey and qualitative interviews with academic and clinical educators. If you teach in a health-related field and would like to participate, please contact Madeleine Jurmann here.

Authors

Dr Madeleine Juhrmann

Research Fellow

CareSearch