Advancing research and evidence for compassion-based interventions: A matter of the head or heart?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted – now perhaps more than ever – the pressing need to understand and promote compassion in ways that empower communities and clinicians alike, with the courage and capacity to engage therapeutically with suffering for its alleviation. As alluded to by Walshe,¹ compassion is a watchword of our approach to care in palliative and end-of-life contexts. For many, it represents the essence of palliative care; indeed, some describe practising the ‘art of compassion’ in their clinical practice. But palliative care is also a science. And at times, it seems compassion is rendered a mere platitude within clinical practice and policy discourse. If compassion is the foundation of compassionate care, an important question for palliative care research, then, is: how strong is our understanding and evidence base for compassion, itself?