More so than for perhaps any other area of health care, the knowledge base supporting the basic elements of palliative care clinical practice is still lacking. Numerous reports have highlighted the critical need for research to advance the science of palliative care, but investments do not match this. A recent report on investment in palliative and end-of-life research in Canada revealed that for every $20 spent on cancer prevention services and basic research only $1 was spent on palliative care research (Canadian Cancer Research Alliance and Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, 2011); similar findings are reported for other countries.