Literature Review
All posts tagged with “Research News.”
Divergent mortality associated with Parkinson's disease dementia in the United States from 1999 to 2020
05/09/26 at 03:25 AMConsiderations and recommendations for palliative care management in the geriatric trauma population
05/09/26 at 03:20 AMLosing a close person to death in ICU: A thematic analysis of bereaved family members' experiences of end-of-life care
05/09/26 at 03:15 AMLosing a close person to death in ICU: A thematic analysis of bereaved family members' experiences of end-of-life careIntensive and Critical Care Nursing; by Lena Palmryd, Anette Alvariza, Asa Rejno, Tove Godskesen; 6/26This study aims to describe bereaved family members experiences of end-of-life care following the death of a close person in ICU... In ICUs, family members are in great need of compassionate support, characterized by the presence of ICU nurses and their emotionally attuned communication. This support helps family members navigate the complexity in care, fostering trust, meaning-making, and a sense of dignity.
Psychological intervention aimed at depression, anxiety, and advance care planning in people with advanced cancer
05/09/26 at 03:10 AMPsychological intervention aimed at depression, anxiety, and advance care planning in people with advanced cancerCU Anschutz press release; by Greg Glasgow; 4/15/26People with advanced or incurable cancer, understandably, often experience heightened levels of anxiety and depression, as well as an inability to undertake advance care planning — discussing and deciding on future medical care preferences in the event that a patient is no longer able to speak for themself. “Advance care planning involves deciding who would be making those decisions, how much flexibility that person would have in making them, and what types of decisions you would prefer that person make,” says University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center member Joanna Arch, PhD. “Physicians care about advance care planning because patients can get very sick and enter the ICU, and if they haven't communicated what they want, it can create a lot of difficulties for the family and the clinicians.” Arch and fellow cancer center member Jean Kutner, MD, MSPH, along with Regina Fink, PhD, professor emeriti of internal medicine, developed an intervention to help patients with advanced cancer cope with anxiety, depression, and advance care planning.
Assessing and Listening to Individual Goals and Needs (ALIGN) versus enhanced usual care for hospitalized older patients with cancer discharged to skilled nursing facilities: Protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial
05/09/26 at 03:05 AMNursing home ratings and characteristics predict hospice use among decedents with serious illnesses
05/09/26 at 03:00 AMNursing home ratings and characteristics predict hospice use among decedents with serious illnessesJournal of the American Medical Directors Association; by Ellis C Dillon, Chae Man Lee, Wenqi Gan, Doreek Charles, Germine Soliman, Julie Robison; 4/26Approximately one-third of older Americans experience a nursing home (NH) stay within 3 months of death, but it is unclear how NH characteristics influence end-of-life care. Short-term (vs long-term) NH stays were associated with increased odds of hospice use and short hospice use. Individuals with long-term stays had lower odds of hospice use with stays at NHs with the highest (vs lowest) CMS ratings for quality measures and staffing ... Those with short-term stays had lower odds of hospice use with stays at NHs with the highest CMS Health Inspection ratings. People with long-term stays at NHs that were part of a chain, had Alzheimer's care units, or had more beds had increased odds of hospice care. Conclusions and implications: Among Connecticut Medicaid-insured decedents with NH stays, people with long-term stays and stays in NHs with better CMS ratings had lower odds of hospice use. Assistant Editor's note: This summary article highlights an important issue and an excellent opportunity for future analysis in a broader context. Intuitively, we'd like to see highly rated NHs have higher hospice utilization.
Integrating generative AI into patient-centered clinical decision support: Viewpoint on research and practice considerations
05/02/26 at 03:35 AMInterventions for bereavement-What works, what does not, and what might
05/02/26 at 03:30 AMInterventions for bereavement-What works, what does not, and what mightJAMA Psychiatry; by Charles F. Reynolds III, Holly G. Prigerson, M. Katherine Shear, Sidney Zisook; 4/26The 2025 publication commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of a systematic review of “Interventions to Improve Care of Bereaved Persons” provides a timely opportunity to continue—and to deepen—a conversation of great importance about the universal experience of grief and its burdens, both personal and related to public health. The report was prepared at the Southern California Evidence-Based Practice Center in Los Angeles; it aimed to review available evidence on screening, diagnosing, and treating children and adults with grief disorders related to bereavement. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration convened an independent subject matter advisory panel to assess the feasibility of developing standards for high-quality bereavement and grief care.
Improving advanced practice clinicians' knowledge and comfort of physician orders for life-sustaining treatment form: A homecare quality improvement initiative
05/02/26 at 03:25 AMImproving advanced practice clinicians' knowledge and comfort of physician orders for life-sustaining treatment form: A homecare quality improvement initiativeGeriatric Nursing; by Jeanette M Ruiz, Yvonne Y Wu, Kristen R Choi, Emily J Martin, Eden R Brauer; 4/26Many advanced practice clinicians (APCs) lack formal training on how to effectively discuss the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) with chronically ill older adults, often leading to communication gaps and delayed end-of-life decisions. This quality improvement initiative aimed to improve APCs knowledge and comfort in initiating and documenting POLST discussions with community-dwelling geriatric patients. A one-hour online training, incorporating didactic instruction, role-playing, and debriefing, was delivered for APCs providing home-based care. Surveys conducted before and after the training measured ... improvements ... in POLST completion documentation ... , POLST discussions documentation ... , POLST upload documentation ... , hospice knowledge ... , palliative care knowledge ... , preparedness to discuss POLST ... , comfort with end of life conflict discussions ... , addressing religious/cultural perspectives ... , and use of structured communication frameworks ...
Communication processes and priorities in Medical Aid in Dying conversations: A cross-sectional qualitative study of multidisciplinary cancer clinicians
05/02/26 at 03:20 AMCommunication processes and priorities in Medical Aid in Dying conversations: A cross-sectional qualitative study of multidisciplinary cancer cliniciansCancer Medicine; by Meghan McDarby, Alix Youngblood, Megan Miller, William E Rosa, Haley Buller, Betty R Ferrell; 4/26Medical aid in dying (MAiD) is a practice that enables eligible individuals with a terminal, life-limiting illness to end their lives in a self-directed way. Multidisciplinary care teams play a vital role in facilitating discussions and patient decision making about MAiD in cancer care settings. Four themes were identified as communication priorities and processes critical for multidisciplinary teams when discussing MAiD with cancer patients: (1) addressing complexity of MAiD ... ; (2) thorough palliative care assessment; (3) strategies for clinicians and healthcare systems to optimize MAiD discussions; and (4) person-centered care that de-stigmatizes MAiD. Findings underscore the distinct complexity of MAiD discussions in oncology and highlight the need for tailored, person-centered approaches that go beyond standard end-of-life communication.
Comparison of inpatient end-of-life care intensity between heart failure and cancer
05/02/26 at 03:10 AMSocial work involvement in advance care planning post US 2016 Medicare policy change: A systematic review
05/02/26 at 03:05 AMSocial work involvement in advance care planning post US 2016 Medicare policy change: A systematic reviewBMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; by Peiyuan Zhang, Yixuan Wang, Jihyeong Jeong, Kaipeng Wang, John G Cagle; 4/26Since 2016, the US Medicare programme has reimbursed physicians and advanced practice providers for advance care planning (ACP) discussions; however, social workers-who play a critical role in ACP-remain excluded from reimbursement. Across studies, clinical social workers demonstrated strong knowledge of advance directives and reported high levels of confidence in facilitating ACP discussions. Most participants expressed positive attitudes towards ACP and viewed ACP facilitation as a core professional responsibility. Intervention studies suggested that social worker-led ACP initiatives may increase patient engagement in ACP, particularly completion of formal ACP documentation. These findings support ongoing policy discussions regarding the inclusion of social workers in ACP reimbursement frameworks.
The TRUST Leadership Framework for clinical innovation and effective change
05/02/26 at 03:00 AMResearchers at University of Pittsburgh target managed care (The state of hospice: Impacts on equity, quality, and nursing-an AAN consensus paper): managed care
04/28/26 at 03:00 AMResearchers at University of Pittsburgh target managed care (The state of hospice: Impacts on equity, quality, and nursing-an AAN consensus paper): managed care Insurance Newsnet; by a news reporter-staff news editor at Insurance Daily News; 4/24/26 ... This consensus paper examines the current state of hospice care in the US and the impact of changing hospice business models on health equity, healthcare quality, and nursing practice. Review of current literature and government policy statements related to hospice care and payment. Recommendations include updating policies to account for private equity involvement, evaluating current quality measures, addressing the existing Medicare Hospice Benefit, ensuring transparency and oversight for hospice agencies, and ensuring patient and caregiver education about hospice services.
Unpacking scopes & challenges in AI-driven health safety monitoring: A systematic literature review toward real-time fall and wandering monitoring for patients with dementia
04/25/26 at 03:35 AMBridging the gap: Aligning clinical decision support regulation with clinical practice in the era of artificial intelligence
04/25/26 at 03:30 AMMedicaid Home and Community-Based Services initiation and acute services use
04/25/26 at 03:25 AMBridging urology and palliative care: A narrative review of current practice and evolving priorities
04/25/26 at 03:20 AMSecond-generation antipsychotics for depression in serious illness: A first-line augmentation strategy
04/25/26 at 03:15 AMSecond-generation antipsychotics for depression in serious illness: A first-line augmentation strategyJournal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Gregg Robbins-Welty, Mia Pattillo, Danielle Chammas, Karolina Sadowska, Cara L McDermott, Nneka Ufere, Jason A Webb, Daniel Shalev; 3/26Depression in serious illness is common, disabling, and often requires rapid improvement. In the psychiatric literature, SGA [second-generation antipsychotics] augmentation improves response and remission rates ... , with onset of improvement within 1-2 weeks. Monotherapy is less well tolerated and not guideline-recommended. No RCTs have evaluated SGAs specifically for depression in serious illness, but numerous cancer trials support their safety for nausea, appetite, and other symptoms. Despite the absence of serious illness-specific psychiatric trials, SGAs have the strongest evidence base among augmentation options and may offer meaningful benefits when prognosis or symptom severity necessitates rapid improvement. Low-dose augmentation should be considered early, rather than only after multiple failed antidepressants, particularly when SGAs can also target co-occurring physical symptoms relevant to palliative care.
Responding to parental requests for potentially nonbeneficial treatment in life-threatening situations: Clinical report
04/25/26 at 03:10 AMDiscontinuation of medications with limited benefit at end of life in community-dwelling older veterans
04/25/26 at 03:05 AMDiscontinuation of medications with limited benefit at end of life in community-dwelling older veteransJournal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Joshua M Thorpe, Kelvin A Tran, Sherrie L Aspinall, Shelli L Feder, Brystana G Kaufman, Ann Kutney-Lee, Maria K Mor, Loren J Schleiden, Florentina E Sileanu, Carolyn T Thorpe, Courtney H Van Houtven; 4/26Discontinuation of medications with limited benefits (LBM) in patients nearing the end of life can reduce burden, adverse events, and costs, and enhance quality of life. However, most research on end-of-life prescribing has focused on nursing homes or hospice settings. [This study setting was] community-residing, non-hospice older veterans. Among community-dwelling older veterans in their final year of life, 73% were receiving at least one LBM at the start of that year, and 78% of these individuals continued LBM use until death. These rates parallel those reported in long-term care populations and underscore the need for community-based healthcare providers to routinely screen for LBMs and support appropriate medication discontinuation in older patients with advanced illnesses and limited life expectancy.