Palliative Care News

• When Should Those With End-Stage Kidney Disease Forego Dialysis? Australia and the UK have long had programs whereby some elderly patients with end-stage kidney disease, or those with many comorbidities, opt to forego dialysis, but the US has lagged behind.
  Medscape Medical News, May 23, 2022
• Traditional Advance Directives May Undermine Advanced Care Plans A new qualitative study suggests that focusing only on creating an advance care directive may get in the way of patients having a goals-of-care discussion with clinicians.
  Reuters Health Information, April 29, 2022
• Doc Accused of Killing 14 Patients Found Not Guilty Was it an act of mercy or murder when a doctor gave dying patients large does of fentanyl? The verdict was just declared in the 7-week Ohio trial.
  Medscape Medical News, April 21, 2022
• AACR 2022 Better Survival in Older Cancer Patients Who Also Take Metformin Older patients with advanced cancer who also had diabetes and were taking metformin were found to have better survival than those not taking metformin.
  Medscape Medical News, April 12, 2022
• ILD Progression, Not Diagnosis, Triggers Palliative Care Only two thirds of physicians reported using palliative care services for patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD).
  Medscape Medical News, April 04, 2022
• Spiritual Interventions Improve QOL, Outcomes in HF A new review of spiritually oriented interventions suggests they might be valuable for heart failure patients in improving quality of life, anxiety, and depression, as well as clinical outcomes.
  Medscape Medical News, March 31, 2022
• Lancet Commission Reexamines the Current Approach to Death Experts call for a new approach to end-of-life matters that establishes a balance between death and life.
  Medscape Medical News, March 21, 2022
• New Guidance on Palliative Care for Neurologic Disorders An updated position paper stresses advance care planning and communication skills among its ethical guidance when treating "life-altering" neurologic illnesses.
  Medscape Medical News, March 10, 2022
• Man Who Received First Modified Pig Heart Transplant Dies David Bennett Sr, who had terminal heart disease and became the first person to receive a genetically modified pig heart, lived for 2 months following the transplant.
  Medscape Medical News, March 09, 2022
• Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients Without Necessary Care Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients
  Kaiser Health News, February 03, 2022
• Palliative-Care Triggers Inefficient in Critically Ill Using clinical triggers to prompt palliative-care consultations in ICUs appears inefficient at identifying unmet care needs in critically ill patients, according to a new study.
  Reuters Health Information, February 01, 2022
• South Africans Intrigued by Desmond Tutu's Choice of Aquamation Anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu's choice of aquamation over cremation or traditional burial came as a surprise to some South Africans, while others were impressed by this environmentally conscious move.
  Reuters Health Information, January 20, 2022
• Unnecessary Use of Radiotherapy Persists in End-of-life Patients The use of unnecessary radiotherapy in metastatic cancer patients near the end of life is still higher than guidelines recommend, suggesting the need for better adherence to the guidelines.
  Medscape Medical News, January 17, 2022
• Black-Owned Hospice Hopes to Ease Dying for Black Families National data show that Black Medicare patients and their families are not making the move to comfort care as often as White patients are.
  Kaiser Health News, January 10, 2022
• Addressing Pain in Patients With Opioid-Use Disorder and Advanced Cancer When it comes to treating pain in patients with opioid-use disorder and advanced cancer, a panel of experts generally favors continuing treatment with methadone or buprenorphine-naloxone.
  Reuters Health Information, January 03, 2022
• Were These True Medical Miracles? Doctors Disagree These patient recoveries seemed impossible. But were they medical miracles?
  Medscape Medical News, December 29, 2021
• ASH 2021 Talk Early to Patients With High-Risk AML About End of Life It's important to bring up end-of-life decisions when patients are still able to discuss them, so families aren't left struggling to guess.
  Medscape Medical News, December 12, 2021
• SABCS 2021 In Metastatic Breast Cancer, Primary Resections on the Decline Surgical resection rates of the primary tumor in metastatic breast cancer has declined in recent years, possibly reflecting changes in practice after trails showed no survival benefit.
  Medscape Medical News, December 09, 2021
• Electrocuted by 11,000 Volts, Now a Triple Amputee…and an MD As a teenager, BJ Miller lost three limbs after being electrocuted. Read about his amazing journey to become a physician.
  Medscape Medical News, December 08, 2021
• Palliative Care Improves End-of-Life Care in Biliary Tract Cancer A recent review, published as a preprint, found that palliative care leads to a gentler, more humane death in inoperable biliary tract cancer.
  First Look, November 29, 2021