Palliative care remains woefully underused in serious respiratory illnesses (SRIs), representing a growing public health crisis. Although more than 70 million people worldwide experience serious health-related suffering (SHS) each year, nearly 90% of palliative care needs go unmet, with the majority of unrelieved suffering taking place in the poorest countries. Lung disease is the third most common cause of SHS in both the proportion of people affected globally and the prevalence of daily physical and psychological symptom burden. For instance, 480 million people were affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2020—a figure projected to increase to approximately 600 million by 2050.
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