Consensus Conference Updates Research Priorities for Surgical Palliative Care

Surgical palliative care research has advanced since a 2017 agenda, but gaps in identifying patients, delivering interventions and measuring outcomes continue to limit implementation. In November 2025, a national consensus conference brought together 28 experts and researchers to update priorities across surgical care and health systems. Participants used iterative discussion and consensus-building during the meeting and subsequent months; detailed methods and participant characteristics were provided in supplementary materials.

The updated agenda identified 11 research gaps across three areas: patient selection; interventions, care processes and competencies; and outcome measurement. Priorities include determining who may benefit from surgical palliative care and when, broadening access beyond traditional populations, clarifying core competencies and the role of specialist consultation, and improving communication about surgical intent, trade-offs and preference-sensitive decisions. The agenda also calls for research on integrating care across systems and transitions, changing clinical culture, and developing patient-centered outcomes suited to different contexts.

The authors point to electronic health records and natural language processing or large language models as possible tools for scaling identification, care delivery and measurement, while noting concerns about bias and task-dependent performance. These are research priorities, not evidence of effectiveness or recommendations to alter practice; the source provides no intervention outcomes.