Literature Review

Medicare pushes end-of-life discussions in hospitalsAXIOS; by Maya Goldman; 6/29/26The Trump administration wants to formalize the process for recording whether Medicare patients want to be kept alive if they become incapacitated. Why it matters: Health providers have been required to ask about living wills and other "advance directives" since the early 1990s. But the questions are often skipped - or become a box-check in the admissions process. Only about a third of U.S. adults have documented their end-of-life care wishes. More consultations could reduce costly life-extending treatments that patients don't really want.Driving the news: The administration is proposing that hospitals begin reporting adult patients' preferences for end-of-life care in electronic health records starting in 2028.

Flying high: A Rainbow veteran’s late-life adventure Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, WI; by Kenyon Kemnitz, Rainbow Community Care; 6/24/26 [The story of a 98 year-old veteran in hospice care going on an Honor Flight to Washington DC.] Behind the scenes, the Rainbow [hospice] staff balanced rigorous clinical planning with deep emotional support. Amanda served as the clinical anchor for the mission. Initially, there were discussions about postponing his flight until May, but Raduege advocated for keeping the timeline the same. She coordinated with the Honor Flight’s specialized medical team and ensured that every potential health variable was addressed long before takeoff. ... The Honor Flight carried over 80 veterans, but Weber was the patriarch of the group. ... Throughout the day, he was accompanied by his own personal medic, an EMT named Travis, who stayed by his side, providing a continuous blanket of clinical safety and companionship.

Dying patients shouldn’t have to choose between dia­lysis care and com­fort The Boston Globe, Boston, MA; by Patricia Ramsden; 6/22/26 ... Medi­care cur­rently requires most end-stage kid­ney fail­ure patients to choose between dia­lysis and hos­pice bene­fits. ... People dying from other ter­minal ill­nesses do not face this harsh choice. For sev­eral years, Dia­lysis Clinic, Inc. (DCI), the only national not-for-profit dia­lysis organ­iz­a­tion, has col­lab­or­ated with not-for-profit hos­pice organ­iz­a­tions to offer con­cur­rent pal­li­at­ive dia­lysis and hos­pice care to selec­ted patients in Ten­nessee and West­ern Pennsylvania. A 2026 col­lab­or­a­tion between DCI and Care Dimen­sions, the largest hos­pice pro­vider in the state, expan­ded that model to East­ern Mas­sachu­setts. However, this innov­at­ive pro­gram, rely­ing on phil­an­thropic fund­ing, remains avail­able only to a few patients.

The illusion of choice at the end of life Huffpost Personal; by Jennifer Obel, MD; 6/21/26 After the hospice nurse increased my mother’s morphine drip to ease the feeling of drowning, my mom never spoke to me again. By then, her metastatic lung cancer had taken nearly everything: her strength, her vigor, her independence. What remained was breathlessness that came in waves, each one more frightening than the last. The morphine was meant to quiet her panic and soften the feeling of suffocation. It did. It also closed the door on any final conversation. I was both daughter and oncologist, and the weight of those roles was devastating. I understood what was happening physiologically from decades of treating patients. That knowledge did nothing to make it easier to sit at her bedside, waiting for her to wake, unsure if she could hear me or say goodbye. ...

[Portugal] Reiki and Therapeutic Touch for symptom burden and quality of life in palliative settings: A systematic reviewPalliative Medicine; by Raquel Pontes-Gomes, Paulo Reis-Pina; 5/26Evidence regarding Reiki and Therapeutic Touch in palliative and end-of-life care remains limited and heterogeneous. Nine studies involving 415 participants were included: five mixed-methods studies, three randomized controlled trials, and one qualitative cross-sectional study conducted in North America (n = 6) and Europe (n = 3). Cancer was the predominant diagnosis.  Some studies reported improvements in symptoms (pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stress), and in quality-of-life domains (sleep, relaxation, energy, hope, and emotional well-being). Qualitative findings described perceived relaxation, comfort, and emotional support. Further well-designed studies are needed to clarify their potential role in palliative care.

Palliative care utilization, advance care planning, and outcomes among older adults with cancer presenting to the emergency department Academic Emergency Medicine; by Meredith Janes, Nancy Wood, Emily Strong, Lisa Smith, Eric Snyder, Sule Yilmaz; 6/17/26 Conclusions: Older adults with cancer presenting to the emergency department (ED) experience high rates of hospitalization, intensive care use, and short-term mortality, yet palliative care remains underutilized. Although advanced care planning (ACP) documentation increased during acute care encounters, these changes often occur with clinical deterioration. The ED offers an opportunity to identify unmet palliative care needs and facilitate earlier integration. 

The collusion in discussing prognosis with cancer patients MedPage Today's KevinMD.com; by Kyle Edmonds, MD; 6/14/26 Two people sit in an exam room. One has an illness that will end their life. The other knows. Neither wants to say it out loud, so neither does. The conversation drifts toward next steps (another scan, another line of therapy, another visit on the calendar), and both leave the room feeling that it went well. This is not a thought experiment. In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study by Jane Weeks and colleagues that should have changed practice overnight. ... That was 2012. Same finding turned up again recently: 986 advanced cancer patients, 74 percent still misperceiving their treatment’s intent. The pattern is alive and well.

Hospice care takes a community: Lynn Mock Cleveland.com, Cleveland, OH; by guest columnist Lynn Mock, chief strategy officer for Reserve Care; 6/14/26 ... Across Northern Ohio, families face some of life’s most difficult moments when a loved one is living with serious illness. In those moments, medical expertise matters. But so does something less clinical, but just as essential: human presence. Hospice brings both. ... This support allows patients to focus on what matters most in the time they have. But hospice does not stand alone in that work. It is strengthened by the community around it. ... Community support also makes grief care possible.

How Mayo Clinic adopted an innovative AI tool for palliative care utilization HealthLeaders; by Christopher Cheney; 6/10/26 The AI tool not only identifies hospitalized patients with serious illnesses who could benefit from palliative care services but also targets these patients faster than the health system could in the past. ... To address underutilization of palliative care services, Mayo Clinic and Bayesian Health developed an AI tool to boost palliative care in the hospital setting.

Father with terminal illness fights to attend MHSAA championship to see son play Northeaset Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, MS; by Caleb McCluskey; 6/6/26 From the time Carter Barefoot, 17, could walk, he was playing baseball, especially with his father, Alan Barefoot, who played Division I baseball in college. But illness has limited his father’s ability to enjoy the game they have shared throughout their lives. ... “He never missed a game,” Carter said. After doctors diagnosed Alan, 55, with terminal cancer and admitted him to Sanctuary Hospice, he physically could not be there for most of Carter’s junior-year season. Sanctuary made it happen, arranging for Alan to attend the playoffs in Pearl, where he watched his son’s Mooreville team become Class 4A state champion. It meant the world to Carter to see his dad there.