Literature Review

How to talk to your loved ones about end of life wishes Those Nerdy Girls; by Rebecca Raskin-Wish; 10/17/25 It’s important to have discussions about what you want the end of your time on earth to look like and have a healthcare proxy and an advance directive in place. When my sister and I were teenagers, my mom sat us down, and in a potentially more dramatic fashion than the moment called for, she said, “Girls, my death could happen any moment, and we need to talk about it.” ...

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. ~ Mark Twain

Study: Nearly two-thirds of nursing home residents were exposed to med combos linked to potential drug-drug interactions McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Foster Stubbs; 10/17/25 About 62% of nursing home residents experienced one or more drug-drug interactions (DDI) between 2018 and 2020, according to an October study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Researchers examined 485,251 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 66 years or older living in nursing homes with observable Medicare Part D prescription drug data. Data were drawn from Medicare claims linked to Minimum Data Set 3.0 clinical assessments. 

GeriPal Live! at CAPC: Karen Bullock, Kim Curseen, Matt GonzalesGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Karen Bullock, Kim Curseen, Matt Gonzales; 10/9/25Eric and I had the pleasure of doing a GeriPal Live! Podcast as the closing keynote for the recent Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) National Assembly in Philadelphia PA. For this podcast, we invited 3 guests to each select an article of interest to them, and engage in a discussion about the article, including questions from the CAPC attendees in the audience. Matt Gonzales used AI to select an article by Ravi Parikh on algorithm based nudges to default patients with advanced cancer into a palliative care consult... Kim Curseen selected an article by Harry Han in JPSM that surveyed palliative care fellowships... Karen Bullock selected a letter she first authored in response to Ira Byock’s white paper on a path forward in hospice and palliative care.

The results are in: Palliative care professionals share how they’re doing in 2025CAPC blog; by Rachael Heitner; 10/8/25CAPC’s second annual Palliative Pulse survey offers insight on how palliative care professionals across the country are feeling this year and what they’re focused on—see how they responded... This year, 854 palliative care professionals participated in the Palliative Pulse survey... Top concerns for the coming year:

How leaders can learn to listen: Emotional intelligence and aligned purpose can transform the way teams communicate and get results Comstock's Magazine; by Laurie Lauletta-Boshart; 10/20/25 ... Jessica Kriegel, who has a Ph.D. in human resources development and educational leadership and management, ... worked with Joshua’s House Hospice, a Sacramento nonprofit organization that provides hospice care to terminally ill homeless men and women, to determine the best way to hire employees who would stay long term. “They were looking to attract the right talent, but also wanted to retain that talent and make sure they were motivated and fulfilled in their work,” says Kriegel. Instead of a culture fit, Kriegel and her team advanced a purpose fit, where the organization’s purpose and the personal purpose of those they hired were aligned.

Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI) deploys innovative use of LLMs for summarizing and supporting patient preferences at a leading cancer center Bluegrass Live; by PR Newswire, Boston, MA; 10/20/25 An innovative new protocol called Better Real-time Information on Documentation of Goals of care for Engagement in Serious Illness Communication (BRIDGE-SIC) is being launched today at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. BRIDGE-SIC uses Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI) large language models (LLMs) to extract and summarize patients' goals of care conversations and their risk stratification tools for patient selection. The AI summaries identify and summarize prior goals of care conversations documented in patients' medical records and share them with inpatient and outpatient clinicians when patients with cancer are admitted to the hospital.

Driving sales and admissions success in hospice careTranscend Strategy Group; 10/13/25Behind every referral, every admission and every family supported by hospice care is a story. It is the story of providers working against the clock, of families making overwhelming choices, and of staff navigating the delicate balance between operational realities and the urgent need for compassionate care. Hospice admissions and sales are not merely about numbers or processes – they represent moments when trust, urgency and compassion converge.

Tumor infiltration of major blood vessels, not metastasis, may be primary cause of cancer deathMedical Xpress; UT Southwestern Medical Center; 10/16/25The ultimate cause of death from cancer may not be metastatic disease, as researchers have long surmised, but an infiltration of tumors into major blood vessels that cause blood clots and multiorgan failure, a one-of-a-kind clinical study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center suggests. These findings, published in Nature Medicine, could spur interventions that extend the lives of patients with advanced cancers. "The big question we were trying to answer: What kills cancer patients? Why do they die one specific day rather than six months earlier or later?" said Matteo Ligorio, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Traumatic brain injury in late life tied to elevated dementia risk Medscape; by Liz Scherer; 10/13/25 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in late life is associated with a significant increase in the risk for new-onset dementia. The risk is especially elevated (by as much as 69%) within the first 5 years following the injury, according to newly published study findings. Though TBI, which results from direct impact or indirect force to the head, has long been recognized as a midlife risk factor for dementia, the risk that TBI poses in adults aged 65 years or older has been unclear.

The government shutdown’s impact on Medicare Advantage: As clear as mud? JD Supra; by Jeffrey Davis and Lynn Nonnemaker; 10/16/25 Over the last couple of weeks, stakeholders have raised many questions about how the government shutdown will affect different healthcare initiatives and programs, and Medicare Advantage (MA) is no exception. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided guidance related to Medicare claims processing, telehealth services, and other operations, but most of that has pertained to Medicare fee-for-service (traditional Medicare). MA plans have been largely responsible for figuring out how the information applies to them. About half of Medicare beneficiaries are in MA, meaning more than 35 million Medicare beneficiaries and the providers who care for them rely on MA plans to communicate how benefits and coverage have, or have not, changed. As the shutdown drags on, CMS’s work to establish future MA policies and payment rates through rulemaking and notices also could be impeded. To discuss some of the ways that the shutdown has impacted MA and may continue to do so, I’m bringing in my colleague Lynn Nonnemaker. ...