Whoever Does Image-Guided Palliative Care Needs to Be Properly Trained to Do So

Abstract

Vascular and interventional radiologists (VIRs) often offer image-guided palliative care procedures, despite having little training in clinical medicine, let alone in palliative medicine. Informed consent tends to be inadequate, as does postprocedure patient care. This article proposes that VIRs who perform image-guided palliative procedures be sufficiently trained in palliative care or that surgeons or internists subspecialized in palliative care be sufficiently trained to provide image-guided techniques.