Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog 
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This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.Conference Review: 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium - Day 1
by Christian Sinclair (@ctsinclair)It is a testament to the growth and mainstream acceptance of palliative care, that there is a sub-sub-specialty two-day conference like the#PallOnc conference held in San Diego this past weekend. If you have not heard of this meeting yet, and the majority of your work in that intersection between oncology and palliative care, I would highly recommend considering it in the future. This is the 4th consecutive year the meeting has been held, and I applaud the commitment of the four co-sponsoring organizations (AAHPM, ASCO, ASTRO and MASCC). Kristina Newport and Shanthi Sivendranreviewed this...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - October 30, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: conference reviews oncology palliative sinclair Source Type: blogs
Quality Improvement – The Science of Making Care Better for All
by Arif Kamal (@arifkamalmd)It seems everywhere a person turns, there ’s nonstop discourse regarding healthcare quality, particularly the relationship of meeting quality metrics to demonstrating lower costs and higher value. As palliative care further immerses itself into usual healthcare delivery, it behooves our workforce to adeptly apply quality improvement skil ls to translate our sense of “what is right” into the usual practice of “what is done.” Meeting these demands takes skills and practice, rooted in an evolving evidence base around quality improvement science.It may confuse some to hear that quality imp...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - October 23, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: conference kamal quality Source Type: blogs
Building Certification for Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers - Take the Survey!
by Megan Mooney(Take the Hospice and Palliative SW Job Analysis survey before October 5th if you are a social worker. If you are not a social worker,encourage social workers in hospice and palliative care that you know to take it!)What is Evidence Based Practice?The Institute of Medicine (2001) defines evidence-based medicine as “the integration of best researched evidence and clinical expertise with patient values” (p. 147). According to Social Work Policy Institute (2010) evidence-based practice (EBP) is defined as the combination of research interventions, clinical experience, values, and client preference that aids...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - October 2, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: mooney social work social worker Source Type: blogs
Palliative Care in the Time of Hurricane Harvey
by Ishwaria Subbiah (@IshwariaMD)Trouble BrewingBetween the network news and many institutional emails on hurricane preparations, we at MD Anderson knew were in for something ‘big.’ Harvey made landfall on August 25th as a Category 4 hurricane about 190 miles southwest of Houston. The outer bands brought rain without any major disruptions to our practice. As expected, upon landfall, Harvey rapidly weakened but stalled over Texas. The subsequent two days brought a level of rainfall best described as apocalyptic. The institution’s leaders activated the ‘ride-out’ team where the core essential physicians and staff r...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 27, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: disaster hurricane subbiah The profession weather Source Type: blogs
Moving From Research to Implementation to Research in Palliative Care, Part 1
by Christian SinclairIn 2003, I began my hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) fellowship in Winston-Salem, NC. I was a solo fellow in a new program, and as luck would have it, I had loads of time to dedicate myself to learning. Since my wife, Kelly, was beginning her pediatric emergency medicine fellowship in Kansas City at the same time, I only had my dog and my fellowship to worry about. I always enjoyed reading articles and imagined how it would apply in my own practice. But when it came down to it, I was never really able to implement much of what I was reading, let alone have the numbers to benchmark against the rese...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 25, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: ESAS non-pain symptoms quality research research issues Source Type: blogs
Lorazepam, Haloperidol, and Delirium
JAMA Internal Medicinehas published a double-blind,randomized, placebo-controlled trial of adding lorazepam to haloperidol in patients with advanced cancer and agitated delirium. (We had a heads up about this trial because it waspresented at ASCO earlier this year.) If there ever was a sort of consensus in HPM about how we should be treating delirium, my sense is that it ’s been shattered by the recentRCT of low-dose haloperidol vs risperidone for delirium in Australian palliative care unit patients, showing those drugsworsened delirium symptoms. So, it seems like we should all see what we can learn from this newly publi...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 25, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: antipsychotics delirium research issues rosielle Source Type: blogs
Preparing to Show Up: Writing Practices that Serve
by Jennifer WilhoitSeveral months ago I wrote a piece for this blog aboutnature practices we can do in hospice settings, and when preparing for visits with families and people who are dying. I stressed the vital importance of self-care as we serve individuals with such acute and ever-changing needs. I also reminded the reader that we do not engage our hospice work in a vacuum, but as ordinary humans ourselves with the vagaries of everyday life pressing in on us. We show up to our families and friends; we show up to those we are called to serve in hospice contexts. But how well do we remember to show up to ourselves with su...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 20, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: hospice intervention Jennifer Wilhoit nature nurture reflect self care Self reflection TEALarbor volunteer writing Source Type: blogs
“Going Palliative” is Not a Thing
by Staci MandrolaI love the segment onLast Week Tonight with John Oliver called “How is this still a thing?” His snarky Britishness targets everything from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue to ‘Why do we dress up as other races?’ The skits start out funny but leave you questioning and unsettled.I hope “going palliative” ends before it shows up on “How is this still a thing?” How do I know " going palliative " is a thing? The phrase is popping up in the academic medical center where I practice palliative care. [And many other hospitals too - Ed.] PT/OT has signed off patients who have a palliative c...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 18, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: culture hospice mandrola palliative Source Type: blogs
Privilege and Palliative Care
by Denise HessAn American pastor recently visited Australia and encountered a curious practice. At the start of meetings, any kind of meeting not just religious ones, she found it is common practice to begin with what is called an “acknowledgment of country.” According to reconciliation.org.au:An Acknowledgement of Country is an opportunity for anyone to show respect for Traditional Owners and the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country. It can be given by both non-Indigenous people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.And it goes something like this:...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 11, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: culture hess open access psychosocial race Source Type: blogs
How HBO's The Leftovers Parallels Our Work in Palliative Care
By Shayna Rich and J. MaggioThe HBO showThe Leftovers has a deceptively straightforward science fiction premise: What happens to people left behind after a Rapture-like event? The Rapture is an apocalyptic event prophesied in the New Testament where people chosen by God disappear into Heaven. In the show, roughly two percent of the world ’s population--about 140 million people--mysteriously disappear in an instant. Unlike the popular Christian book and film seriesLeft Behind, The Leftovers is agnostic to the cause of the sudden departure. Some characters believe it was the Christian Rapture, but other characters disagree...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 5, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: arts leftovers media spirituality/religion tv Source Type: blogs
The Role of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in Education
Discussion topics:T1: What are the main systemic barriers to good communication in healthcare?T2: What is your favorite education tool? (Think broadly!)T3: What is your favorite “high-yield” question to ask patients? Patients, what’s the one Q you want your HCP to ask?Meredith MacMartin is a palliative care physician atDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. (Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog)
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - August 28, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Source Type: blogs
Should Clinicians Be More (or Less) Politically Active?
by Christian SinclairPolitics and healthcare are occupying much of the news cycle this summer with all of the discussions around the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare). On one hand it can viewed as must-see reality TV with all of the drama and back and forth arguments with passionate opposition. Late-night TV hosts help turn the drama into satire and give everyone a good laugh and some entertainment. Yet it is important to see that this will greatly impact the care of the patients we see every day.To be honest, it was not until a few years ago that I started to see the power of getting more politica...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 26, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: AAHPM health policy politics sinclair tweetchat twitter Source Type: blogs
Choice: The Hidden Curriculum in Palliative Care
By Paul CarrThank you to Dr. Naheed Dosani and the excellent team at William Osler Health Centre for inspiring this post.What three words describe the essence of palliative care for you? When I asked my friends, family, and colleagues, the most common answers are: pain management, personal and spiritual support, and end of life planning. Those are all key components. But what quickly became apparent to me during my palliative care elective is that excellent palliative care providers embrace the role of enabling patients and families to make well-informed choices.I have taken a long and untraditional route to arrive in the ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 17, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: choice communication goals palliative paul carr Source Type: blogs
Palliative Care & CHF: PAL-HF trial
The main results of PAL-HF - a randomized, controlled trial of specialty palliative care team involvement in advanced heart failure patients - have just been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.05.030. Clinicaltrials.gov registration here). This is an important, well-done study, with encouraging results - specialty PC improved the quality of life of patients with HF. I ' ll discuss the results in more details in this post.The study was done by a multi-disciplinary team of palliative& cardiology investigators at Duke. This week ' s ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 14, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: chf heart failure research research issues rosielle Source Type: blogs
Upstream Palliative Care and Dissecting Hope From Hype in Oncology
by Christian SinclairWorking in an outpatient cancer center, I frequently encounter the conversation about whether the next cancer treatment regimen is ‘worth it.’ Patients and families consider may interpretations of worth; financial being one of course, but also physical side effects, the emotional toll of investing faith into ‘one more treatment’ and hoping that it works. These conversations are challenging as they weigh biological, medi cal, spiritual, social, personal, emotional and other issues, so there is no neat equation which can easily tell you if the benefits or the risks are greater.These struggles wer...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - June 28, 2017 Category: Palliative Care Tags: sinclair tweetchat Source Type: blogs
