Literature Review

What is Death?GeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Winston Chiong, Sean Aas; 8/22/24We’ve talked about Brain Death before ... and in many ways today’s podcast is a follow up to that episode. Why does this issue keep coming up? Why is it unresolved? Today we put these questions to Winston Chiong, a neurologist and bioethicist, and Sean Aas, a philosopher and bioethicist.

Transforming hospice care: The evolving role of medical directorsCHAPcast podcast; by Jennifer Kennedy, Daniel Maison; 8/21/24How have federal regulatory changes reshaped the role of hospice medical directors from mere formalities to key players in patient care and organizational leadership? Join Jennifer Kennedy and our esteemed guest, Dr. Daniel Maison, as we unpack the historical "three S's" and explore the significant transformations driven by CMS regulations. You'll gain valuable insights into the evolving responsibilities of hospice medical directors, highlighting their integral contributions to both operational and clinical aspects within hospice organizations.

Top news stories of the month, July 2024Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast by Chris Comeaux and Mark Cohen; 8/7/24 In this week’s podcast, Mark Cohen joins me once more for the Top News Stories for the prior month from Hospice & Palliative Care Today... The conversation covers various topics including private equity in healthcare, the increasing scrutiny of for-profit hospitals, fraud in hospice care, and the importance of trust in the hospice sector. The principal themes include the playbook of private equity playbook, the challenges faced by for-profit hospitals and their potential the impact on the Hospice sector, and the erosion of trust due to fraud.

Prognosis Superspecial: A Podcast with Kara Bischoff, James Deardorff, and Elizabeth LilleyGeriPal Podcast; by Alex Smith, Eric Widera, Kara Bischoff, James Deardorff, Elizabeth Lilley; 7/25/24We are dusting off our crystal balls today with three amazing guests who have all recently published an article on prognosis over the last couple months: Kara Bischoff, James Deardorff, and Elizabeth Lilley. To start us off we talk with Kara Bischoff about the article she just published in JAMA Network on a re-validation of the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) in a modern day palliative care setting... Next, we talk with James Deardorff about whether we can accurately predict nursing home level of care in community-dwelling older adults with dementia... Lastly, we invite Liz Lilley to talk about her paper in Annals of Surgery about prognostic alignment, including why as palliative care and geriatrics teams we need to take time to ensure that all disciplines and specialties are prognostically aligned before a family meeting.

Screening for Dementia: A Podcast with Anna Chodos, Joseph Gaugler and Soo BorsonGeriPal Podcast; Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Anna Chodos, Joseph Gaugler, Soo Borson; 7/19/24The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded back in 2000 that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening for dementia in older adults. Are there, though, populations that it may be helpful in, or should that change with the advent of the new amyloid antibodies?  Should it?  If so, how do we screen and who do we screen? On this week’s podcast we talk with three experts in the field about screening for dementia. 

Anxiety in late life and serious illness: A podcast with Alex Gamble and Brianna WilliamsonGeriPal [podcast]; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Alex Gamble, Brianna Williamson; 6/27/24“Anxiety is a lot like a toddler. It never stops talking, tells you you’re wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3 a.m.” I’m not sure who wrote this quote, but it feels right to me. We’ve all had anxiety, and probably all recognize that anxiety can be a force of action or growth but can also spiral to quickly take over our lives and our sleep. How, though, do we navigate anxiety and help our patients who may end up in the anxiety spiral that becomes so hard to get out of? On today’s podcast, we’ve invited Alex Gamble and Brianna Williamson to talk to us about anxiety. Alex is a triple-boarded (palliative care, internal medicine, and psychiatry) assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. Brianna is one of UCSF’s palliative care fellows who just completed her psychiatry residency.

Misconceptions about palliative care still abound, two experts assertMcKnight's Home Care; by Liza Berger, Brynn Bowman, Allison Silvers; 6/12/24[Podcast] While awareness has grown, a sound understanding of palliative care — specialized medical care for people living with serious illnesses — still lacks among the general public and among physicians and other healthcare professionals. The misconceptions present a barrier to its wider use, according to Brynn Bowman, CEO, and Allison Silvers, chief healthcare transformation officer, of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, who spoke to McKnight’s Home Care in a Newsmakers podcast. Among the many myths is that palliative care is not paid for; it is a service under Medicare Part B, they clarified.

Sexual function in serious illness: Areej El-Jawahri, Sharon Bober, and Don DizonGeriPal Podcast; Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Areej El-Jawahri, Sharon Bober, Don Dizon; 6/6/24As Eric notes at the end of today’s podcast, we talk about many difficult issues with our patients. How long they might have to live. Their declining cognitive abilities. What makes their lives meaningful, brings them joy, a sense of purpose. But one issue we’re not as good at discussing with our patients is sexual health. On today’s podcast Areej El-Jawahri, oncologist specializing in blood cancers at MGH, says that sexual health is one of the top if not the top issue among cancer survivors. Clearly this issue is important to patients.

Health equity: Insights on the CMS Framework and Leadership in HealthcareCHAP Podcast; by CHAP and Marisette Hassan; 5/23/24As a nurse, witnessing the pervasive disparities in healthcare access was a profound wake-up call. Our conversation with Marisette Hassan takes us on a journey through the challenges and aspirations of achieving health equity, a mission that has never been more critical than in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. When systems fail to serve everyone equally, the consequences are dire, and our discussion underlines the urgency of this issue. With Marisette's insights on the CMS health equity framework, we unpack the layers of this complex issue, from the importance of data collection to the necessity of culturally tailored services.

Families are often unaware of benefits of palliative hospice care, says retired oncologist KSMU Ozarks Public Radio; radio segment by Linda Regan; 5/5/24 In this episode of our local program Making Democracy Work, host Linda Regan speaks with returning guest Dr. Robert Carolla, retired medical oncologist and board member for Hospice Foundation of the Ozarks. Carolla discusses palliative hospice care and says that families often sign up too late to receive all of the supportive benefits. He says “death is a part of life” and explores common misconceptions associated with hospice care.

Palliative care nursing: Podcast with Betty Ferrell about ELNECGeriPal Podcast; by Alex Smith, Eric Widera, and Betty Ferrell; 4/26/24As Betty Ferrell says on our podcast today, nurses play an essential role in care of people with serious illness. Who spends the most time with the patient in the infusion center? Doing home care? Hospice visits? In the ICU at the bedside? Nurses. ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium) celebrates it’s 25th anniversary in 2025. We talk today with Betty Ferrell, who has been a nurse for 47 years, and is the founder and PI of ELNEC.

The Sunday Read: 'What deathbed visions teach us about living' New York Times Podcasts, 4/7/24 Chris Kerr was 12 when he first observed a deathbed vision. His memory of that summer in 1974 is blurred, but not the sense of mystery he felt at the bedside of his dying father. ... Kerr now calls what he witnessed an end-of-life vision. His father wasn’t delusional, he believes. ... Kerr followed his father into medicine, and in the last 10 years he has hired a permanent research team that expanded studies on deathbed visions to include interviews with patients receiving hospice care at home and with their families, deepening researchers’ understanding of the variety and profundity of these visions.

Good Sam Center of Caring opens half of new home this week WFIR News Talk Radio and WDBJ 7 TV, Roanoke, VA; by Gene Marrano (text) and Aaron Housch (tv); 4/1/24Perhaps today or sometime in the next few days half of the new Good Sam Hospice Center for Caring on Cove Road northwest will be open for business; a wing dedicated to office staff and volunteers. An update from WFIR’s Gene Marrano: [audio]. See video tour of Center for caring here.