In 2006, hospice and palliative medicine was officially recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, and is co-sponsored by the American Boards of Physicians who complete a residency in one of the co-sponsoring specialties are then eligible for further training in an ACGME-approved Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship program, after which they must pass the official examination to be board-certified in the subspecialty.
Initially as a form of lodging for the sick, hospice refers to holistic end of life care.
The first formal hospice was founded in 1948 by the British physician Dame Cicely Saunders in order to care for patients with terminal illnesses.
In the United States, the Institute of medicine published a report, "Approaching Death: improving care at the end of life" (M.I.
This described vast deficiencies in end-of-life care, which prompted support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the George Soros' Open Society Institute for faculty scholars in this area and a NIH State of the Science conferences.
Physicians in this subspecialty have advanced knowledge and skills to prevent and relieve the suffering experienced by patients with life-limiting, life-threatening and terminal illnesses.
They work with an interdisciplinary hospice or palliative care team to maximize quality of life while addressing physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of both patients and family members throughout the course of the disease, including through the dying process and subsequent bereavement.