“Would I be surprised if this patient died within the next year?”

Palliative care is usually taken to mean death from cancer. Yet many of us will die from a slow progressive decline that is not due to cancer. It has been proposed that a positive answer to the question  “Would I be surprised if this patient died within the next year?” should prompt a discussion with the patient and family about dying to allow the best use of the time remaining. Read more in this series in the BMJ