Filling a gap in palliative care

This is truly an exciting time to be in the field of palliative medicine. The field has been recognized as a two-year subspecialty by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Canadian Medical Association recently hosted nationwide discussions about end-oflife care. However, there have been some definite, persistent gaps in physicians' proficiency in providing pall iative and end-of-life care. When I trained in medicine, palliative medicine was an esoteric art, practised only by the few who were vested in its mystical methods. Palliative and endof-life care needed to become mainstream. Stepping into the void in 2001 was the Canadian Pallium Project - now called Pallium Canada - to help educate doctors and nurses in evidence-based palliative care. The Pallium Palliative Pocketbook (first edition, third printing) builds on Pallium Canada's other educational resources such as the LEAP (Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative and End-ofLife Care) course.