Q. How many SPICT™ indicators makes a person ‘SPICT +ve’?
A. We know that life expectancy or prognosis for an individual patient is often uncertain and varies from one person to another depending on many factors. It is much better to identify when holistic palliative care can help than trying to estimate how long a person will live. Waiting until we are sure someone is dying often means they get offered palliative care too late.
First question: Does this patient have one or more general indicators of poorer health? (They may also have had key events like an emergency hospital visit or moving into a care home/ elder care facility.)
Second question: Does this patient also have clinical signs of one or more serious or life threatening health conditions that are not improving with the best available treatment?
Action: Offer a palliative care review including future care planning.
Q: Can use SPICT™ if I need information about life expectancy?
A: If access to palliative care or financial benefits in your country or health system depends on an estimate of life expectancy, then SPICT™ can help with making these clinical assessments. Researchers use SPICT™ like this for some types of cohort research studies.
Research studies with groups of patients in different countries found that having at least two SPICT™ general indicators AND at least one serious health condition gives a ‘population’ risk of dying within 12 months that has reasonable sensitivity and specificity. This is sometimes called being ‘SPICT positive’.
Our Using SPICT™ page has been updated with this information.