Palliative care was officially recognized by the World Health Organization in 1990 as a distinct specialty dedicated to relieving suffering and improving quality of life for patients with serious illnesses. Journal of Palliative Medicine (JPM) was founded in 1997 in response to the need for a scientifically rigorous peer-reviewed journal to advance the field. In our first quarter of the century, JPM has become a leading global peer-reviewed scientific journal. What is the way forward? We engaged with this question in two ways. First, we utilized artificial intelligence techniques to analyze the trends of the articles published in JPM for the past two decades to discern key topic themes. Second, we applied human intelligence by convening seven panels of experts to discuss current topics of interest to the field as a separate strategy for discerning the future. Taken together, the way forward is clear. The field of palliative care has become broader and more subspecialized than anyone ever imagined at the beginning. The expansion of new knowledge has accelerated in all directions from its origins in the end-of-life care of patients with cancer. Although implementation science is of paramount importance, the barriers to implementation of this growing body of specialized knowledge lie not just with the need for more science. Some of the barriers lie within our field. The way forward requires confidence in what we know and the establishment of new collaborations outside of our field, including with people outside of traditional health care.
Keywords: artificial intelligence analysis; interdisciplinary collaboration; natural language processing; palliative care.