Concept mapping in palliative medicine research

Palliative care adopts a share care model that emphasizes the collaboration among patients, families, and health care providers. Different views and different priority of care are often reported. Concept mapping is a research methodology that can best obtain a big picture as well as a clustering of sub-themes that are identified by different parties involved in palliative care. Concept mapping adopts qualitative method to identify themes, and then uses quantitative techniques such as multidimensional scaling to create a map that shows the patterns of relationships between themes. The method draws the shared expertise of a studied group by constructing graphic models of an issue in palliative medicine examined by the group. This paper will introduce the approach of concept mapping and its use in palliative medicine research. Issues such as sample size calculation and validity and reliability will be discussed.