Ambulatory Palliative Care

Outpatient and community-based palliative care models are presented as the scalable way to address LMIC access gaps. Instruments suitable for ambulatory settings may have greater public health impact than inpatient-only tools because inpatient beds are scarce. Ambulatory palliative care is defined broadly as non-inpatient palliative care across outpatient, day-care, community, and home-based settings. The broad definition is intended to reduce misclassification bias in LMIC studies that may not use the word ambulatory. Ambulatory palliative care in LMICs often relies on family caregivers and community health workers rather than specialized multidisciplinary teams.