Dr. Julian Abel became a consultant in palliative care in 2001, working initially at a district general hospital and a hospice. For more than a decade, he has become increasingly involved in finding ways of building compassionate communities around people at end of life. He has run projects at local, regional, and national levels in the United Kingdom. He is an international keynote speaker on public health palliative care. He has regularly published models of public health palliative care.

Since 2016, he has worked with Frome Medical Practice in Somerset in developing a new model of primary care combined with compassionate communities. The health outcomes of this model have been dramatic, with this being the first intervention that has been effective in reducing population emergency admissions. Compassionate communities are one of the most effective therapeutic tools we have in improving the length of life and well-being. Along with Professor Kellehear, he formed Compassionate Communities UK, where he is Director. The charity has been formed to develop the broader role of compassionate communities in both primary care and end-of-life care. Projects are underway in multiple areas in the UK, and several international projects are under development. 

Dr. Julian Abel is the joint author of The Compassion Project, along with the prize-winning novelist Lindsay Clarke. The book describes the background of the Frome Project, its implementation, and the wider implications of the application of compassion both in medicine and in society at large. He runs a podcast, Survival of the Kindest, about compassion and its absence and also appears on podcasts and the media.