[General practitioners in palliative care in Germany: a systematic review]

Abstract

To investigate the role of general practitioners among the increasing specialization in outpatient palliative care, meaningful research topics, developments of new collaborations and structures in the outpatient sector of palliative care, 52 articles were reviewed. Results have shown that general practitioners are still involved in outpatient palliative care research and show a distinct participation in quality development. Typical research topics in outpatient palliative care research are quality of care and structures. However, cooperative structures between general practitioners and palliative specialists are rare in the field of outpatient palliative care research.