GeriPal

MAY 8, 2025

We’ll discuss three recent clinical trials involving patients with serious illness, joined by our guests James Downar , Ali John Zarrabi , and Margaret Ross. We’re going to be talking about new research in psilocybin in serious illness. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 107

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 107

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Assisted Living Communities (no longer preferable to call them Assisted Living Facilities, as we learned on the podcast) are…what, exactly? If you’ve seen one Assisted Living Community you’ve seen one Assisted Living Community. . If you’ve seen one Assisted Living Community you’ve seen one Assisted Living Community. .

Community 97

Community IT Mental Health Medical 97

GeriPal

DECEMBER 14, 2023

More recently Sharon Kaufman ‘s book And a Time to Die described the ways in which physicians, nurses, hospital systems, and payment mechanisms influenced the hour and manner of patient’s deaths. Today Liz Dzeng discusses her journey towards studying this issue in detail. So Liz, let’s jump into the topic.

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Hospital IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

GeriPal

JANUARY 25, 2024

Summary Transcript Summary In a JAMA 2020 systematic review of palliative care for non-cancer serious illness, Kieran Quinn found many positives, as we discussed on our podcast and in our editorial. The article we discuss today, also published in JAMA , addresses these two gaps. In their communities?

Patient-Centered 122

Patient-Centered IT Illness Patients 122

GeriPal

AUGUST 31, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary How do people react when they hear they have a serious illness? And some people, in addition or instead, engage in deep introspection on how to make meaning or live with or understand this experience of serious illness. Shock, “like a car is rushing straight at me” (says Bill Gardner on our podcast).

Illness 128

Illness IT Diagnose Medical 128

GeriPal

JULY 28, 2022

GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness. Alex: And we are also delighted to welcome Areej El-Jawahri, who is an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital as well, who specializes in blood cancers. And I just want to highlight, Jennifer has a great JPSM article that just came out.

Illness 110

Illness Hospital Patient-Centered Patients 110

GeriPal

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Earlier this year palliative care was the correct response to the following clue on the game show Jeopardy: From a Latin word for “to cloak”, it’s the type of care given to seriously ill patients to provide comfort without curing. We had tried to actually select people who didn’t have a serious illness. Marian: Thank you.

Illness 101

Illness Patient-Centered IT Nurse Practitioner 101

GeriPal

MAY 25, 2023

Sarah Nouri, Hillary Lum, and LJ Van Scoy argue that diverse communities are asking for ACP. Sarah Nouri gives an example from her work in the LGBTQ+ community of a trans woman who was buried as a man because existing laws/rules did not protect her wishes. And as you know, it’s a great article. And I love Gladys Knight.

Community 95

Community IT Patient-Centered Primary Care 95

GeriPal

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Today we talk with Sarguni Singh, hospitalist-researcher at the University of Colorado, Ann Henshaw, Occupational Therapist who teaches at George Washington and works clinically at Georgetown, and Tamra Keeney, Physical Therapist-researcher at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Tamra, welcome to the GeriPal podcast.

Patient-Centered 132

Patient-Centered Hospital Patients IT 132

GeriPal

OCTOBER 20, 2022

How HHS and ASPE solicit input from clinicians, community leaders, and older adults and how much it impacts policy decisions (spoiler alert: this involvement is CRUCIAL). There’s a team now with them behind them making sure that they stay safe and held in our communities. How to make your voice heard and get involved.

Complication 52

Complication Patient-Centered IT Patients 52

GeriPal

DECEMBER 8, 2022

As Thor notes, capturing patient stories has face validity as positively impacting the patients who share their stories and have them documented, and for the clinicians who get to truely and deeply know their patients in far greater depth than “what brought you to the hospital?” Bennett, C.R., Schilling, L., Doorenbos, A. PMID: 26701962.

Patient-Centered 115

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

GeriPal

MAY 15, 2025

Prior podcasts on the ethics of nudging , and a different trial conducted by Kate and Scott in which the default for hospitalized seriously ill patients was to receive a palliative care consult. Many were community hospitals. Participants were critically ill and intubated. What is sludge? What to make of that?

Patient-Centered 116

Patient-Centered Hospital IT Illness 116

GeriPal

DECEMBER 15, 2022

In an article in the NEJM (a published article this time, wonder of wonders!) So during the dissertation, that was a method for my PhD research and that’s related to… I was learning about African American elders experiences of psych-social-spiritual healing and serious illness. Tell me about your illness.

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IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Illness 105

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Today we talk with Anne Rohlfing, Lynn Flint, and Anne Kelly, authors of a JGIM article on the reasons we shouldn’t stop at “no.” Imagine her hearing for the first time that you’re sick, that you’re hospitalized, that you’re in the ICU, and that you can’t make your own decisions? Should you stop at “no?” Eric: Lynn or Anne?

Families 97

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 97

GeriPal

MAY 12, 2022

He is also author of the book, “ Walk with the Weary: Lessons in Humanity in Health Care ,” and was featured in this Atlantic article. Prognosis communication and the subtle ways we may communicate it without intention. Community-based palliative care networks . And I believe it needs the community.

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Community IT Relationship Healthcare 115

GeriPal

MAY 22, 2025

Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients. When we started doing more music stuff for our patients in the hospital, a lot of people started to think, hmm, what would I want to listen to? And I was looking for articles, and I wasn’t seeing as many as I expected.

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IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

GeriPal

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Certainly SOME of those avoided hospitalizations, CPR, and ICU stays were due to documentation of those orders in the POLST. Additional links mentioned in the podcast: Recent JGIM article on POLST in California nursing homes, hospitalization, and nursing home care Karl’s GeriPal post on appropriate use of POLST Enjoy!

Patient-Centered 126

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 126

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Today we talk with experts Janet Ho, Sach Kale, and Julie Childers about opioid use disorder and serious illness. Eric 00:51 So we’re gonna be talking about caring for people with serious illness and substance abuse. Who has a song request for Alex before we talk about substance use disorder and serious illness?

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Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 72

GeriPal

MARCH 24, 2022

Start by reading this article by Sean Morrison, Diane Meier, and Bob Arnold in JAMA , and this response from Rebecca Sudore, Susan Hickman, and Anne Walling. Assigning a surrogate decision maker is important for everyone, including those who don’t have serious illness. Where does POLST fit in with this debate? This is Eric Widera.

Illness 72

Illness IT Healthcare Patient-Centered 72

GeriPal

MARCH 24, 2023

For a deeper diver into these issues, check out some of the following links: Ira’s Stat new article “Hospice care needs saving” GeriPal’s episode on the growing role of private equity in hospice care Acquisitions of Hospice Agencies by Private Equity Firms and Publicly Traded Corporations. Ira: I like the article. Thank you, Anne.

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IT Provider Patients Families 113

GeriPal

APRIL 10, 2025

I asked emergency medicine clinicians what they thought when a patient who is seriously ill and DNR comes to the ED, and some responded, (paraphrasing), what are they doing here? Most emergency providers wanted to do the right thing for seriously ill patients, but they didnt have the knowledge, skills, or experience to do it.

Patient-Centered 77

Patient-Centered IT Hospital Patients 77

GeriPal

APRIL 28, 2022

Eric: I’m looking forward to talking about art and humor in palliative care and we’re caring for seriously ill patients. So for those listening to the podcast, this is a clown looking very sad and what looks like a hospital administrator. Welcome to the GeriPal podcast, Nathan. Nathan: Hello, excited to be here.

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IT Hospital Patients Illness 145

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

We covered some of our questions on the podcast, others you can ponder on your own or in your journal clubs, including: Maries tele/video palliative care intervention was tailored/refined with the help of a community advisory board. Three different articles. Who would/should be on that board? I’m Na Ouyang. Eric 00:42 Great.

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Consulting Community Patient-Centered Families 63

GeriPal

JANUARY 11, 2024

To be eligible in Canada patients must have a “ grievous and irremediable ” condition, including disability ; they do not have to have a terminal illness with a prognosis of less than 6 months. A planned expansion of MAID to include people with mental illness was placed on hold until March 2024. So less than six months to live.

Illness 144

Illness IT Medical Provider 144

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Feyron has centered her work in Black/African American faith communities and churches – a program she titled Alter. Alex: And we’re delighted to welcome Fayron Epps, who is associate professor and director of Community and Research Engagement at the School of Nursing at Emory. Why this focus? Karen: Thank you. Alex: Great.

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Community Families Family IT 128

GeriPal

MAY 4, 2023

We remember bucking the rules, figuring out who you are, hair on fire, feeling invulnerable, trying to figure out who you are – and now those adolescents are stuck in the hospital, with doctors and parents telling them what to do, having their autonomy crushed by the medical institution, realizing they’re not invulnerable.

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IT Families Family Illness 83

GeriPal

JUNE 22, 2023

Michele: Yeah, so in May of 2018, there was an article by Suleika Jaouad in the New York Times Magazine, and they spent about two weeks in our hospice with us learning about the work that’s done. And so the article focuses on the work of these three men who were mostly gang involved and did something really bad when they were young.

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Families Family IT Community 132

GeriPal

JANUARY 30, 2025

Find out on this weeks podcast where we invite Joseph Greer, Simone Rinaldi, and Vicki Jackson to talk about their recent JAMA article on Telehealth vs In-Person Early Palliative Care for Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer – A Multisite Randomized Clinical Trial. It’s the same measure we used in the New England journal article.

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Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

GeriPal

JUNE 30, 2022

In today’s podcast we talk with surgeon Samir Shah and Health Services Researcher Joel Weissman about a pair of JAGS articles they published on the outcomes of high risk surgery and advance care planning among persons with dementia. Joel: The Brigham and Women’s Hospital likes me to say that too. Did I get that right? Eric: Yeah.

Patient-Centered 101

Patient-Centered Complication Patients IT 101

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Hospital Chaplains, Spirituality, and Pain Management: A Qualitative Study. The illness narratives suffering, healing, and the human condition. Alex: I wonder when we talk about it, because we’ll have links to both Eric Cassell’s argument, and we mentioned another article from Tate. Pain Manag Nurs. 2023.11.004.

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IT Families Family Physicals 137

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

Social workers augment a team’s ability to provide whole-person care, often aiding to identify and meaningfully address the wide variety of challenges and unmet needs faced by individuals and families facing serious illness. So in preparation for this, I read a couple articles about social work leadership in palliative care.

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IT Families Family Clinic 102

GeriPal

AUGUST 25, 2022

And yet, disenrollment from hospice, either due to patient/family revoking the benefit or stabilization of illness (extended prognosis) is remarkably high for people with dementia among some hospices. It’s something we need to pay attention to, which is what we were talking about in the article. Melissa: Sure.

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Families Family IT Patients 106

GeriPal

APRIL 13, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Social connections impact our health in profound ways, whether it is the support we receive from family and friends in navigating serious illness, the joy from shared social activities, or connecting with our community. They didn’t feel connected to the people in their broader community.

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IT Community Patient-Centered Medical 99

GeriPal

DECEMBER 5, 2024

– @AlexSmithMD Here’s a link to an article about the Palliative Story Exchange. ** This podcast is not CME eligible. Alex 00:40 We’re delighted to welcome Alexis Drutchas, who is a palliative care doc at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co founder, also of the Palliative Story Exchange.

IT 107

IT Community Patients Families 107

GeriPal

JANUARY 16, 2025

Summary Transcript CME Summary Many older adults lose decision-making capacity during serious illnesses, and a significant percentage lack family or friends to assist with decisions. And then the process of having a guardian and then trying to have that guardian ultimately removed is a difficult one for a patient who’s seriously ill.

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

GeriPal

MARCH 3, 2022

A little over a decade ago, Ken Covinsky wrote a GeriPal post about a Jack Iwashyna JAMA study finding that older adults who survive sepsis are likely to develop new functional and cognitive deficits after they leave the hospital. To this day, Ken’s post is still one of the most searched and viewed posts on GeriPal. Eric: What was that paper?

Patient-Centered 96

Patient-Centered Patients IT Hospital 96

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

A great Curbsiders podcast episode on Trauma-informed care with Megan Gerber CAPCs Trauma-informed care toolkit Mariahs article on Home-Based Care for LGBTQ or another diverse gender identity Older Adults ** This podcast is not CME eligible. To learn more about CME for other GeriPal episodes, click here. Ashwin 00:49 Excited to be back.

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IT Patient-Centered Individual Screening 66