Past, present and future of hospice in Korea

Hospice in Korea was started by Sisters of 'Little Company of Mary' came from Australia in 1965, and has been developed mostly by the efforts of some nurses, priests, and sisters of catholic church, ministers of protestant church, and some devoted physicians. Now Korean hospice is in the stage where the active participation of physicians is essential for the facilitation of the development, and the people's need for the maintenance of high level of 'Quality of Life' urges it. To accomplish this need, we should start the laws and regulations for hospice as well as the reimbursement system for hospice care from the National Medical Insurance, we should develop education systems for physicians and medical students, and we should start subspecialty of Palliative Medicine. We also need to increase the level of social and medical acceptance for the use of narcotics for pain control of terminal cancer patients. Finally we need to perform clinical trial as well as the basic research associated with hospice care, and these data can be the basement of hospice development in Korea.