Nationwide monitoring of palliative care via the sentinel network of GPs.

A challenge in end-of-life (EOL) care research today is to find ways to gather systematic information at population level i.e. across all patient populations and care settings. In several European countries a sentinel network of general practitioners (GPs) is operational and performing epidemiological surveillance research via weekly registrations. The network covers approximately 1 to 1,5% of the nationwide patient population and is representative for all GPs. In this workshop we will evaluate the usefulness of this instrument to monitor EOL care, by reflecting on this methodology from different international perspectives: two presentations from countries implementing EOL care research via the sentinel network of GPs (Belgium and the Netherlands); one presentation from a country with a sentinel network of GPs, interested in but not yet doing EOL care research; and one presentation from Canada where no sentinel network is operational.

The workshop consists of the following presentations (15 min each) and discussion (30 min):
1. End-of-life care registration in Belgium by a network of sentinel GPs: methods, sample characteristics and the quality of obtained data (Lieve Van den Block)
2. End-of-life care registration in the Netherlands by a network of sentinel GPs: sample characteristics and quality of the obtained data (Michael Echteld)
3. Reflections from Spain upon the possibilities to implement end-of-life care research via the Spanish sentinel network of GPs (Enrique Arrieta)
4. Reflections from Canada upon the possibility of GP-monitoring of end-of-life care throughout the different health care regions (Robin Fainsinger)
5. Panel discussion

Via this workshop, the strengths and weaknesses of the use of sentinel networks of GPs to monitor EOL care and to make cross-national comparisons, will be mapped out and discussed.