GeriPal

JUNE 8, 2023

Should we use Ozempic (if we can find it) in patients with serious illness, which often results in undesirable and profound weight loss? This hasn’t floated into our hospital systems yet, but at least in the real world, people are using these to make insulin dosing decisions without needing to poke their fingers.

Diabetes 73

Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Family 73

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

APRIL 14, 2022

On today’s podcast we talk with three experts on buprenorphine on why, when, and how to use it in serious illness. And if you want to learn more about buprenorphine from these amazing palliative care clinicians and others, check out of some of these articles: Learn more about caring for those with substance use disorder: . Transcript.

Illness 102

Illness Patient-Centered IT Nurse Practitioner 102

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

Here are some more resources we’ve discussed in the podcast Dani’s NEJM article on coping: “ Should I Laugh at That? Alex 00:26 And we’re delayed to welcome Amanda Moment, who is a palliative care social worker at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Coping in the setting of serious illness.

Illness 125

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

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.

Hospital 125

Hospital IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

GeriPal

JANUARY 18, 2024

Eric: And Alex, we’re going to be talking about substance use disorder and serious illness and aging, with three amazing experts. Eric: So, before we jump into the topic of substance use disorder in aging and serious illness, I think someone has a song request. Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 136

Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 136

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

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? With their regular providers?

Patient-Centered 122

Patient-Centered IT Illness Patients 122

GeriPal

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Communicating about a serious illness is hard. Last week’s podcast we talked about the challenge around miscommunication in serious illness. You recently published an article in the New Yorker titled, I can’t even read my own, what was the title again? Of course not. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 136

Illness IT Patient-Centered Family 136

GeriPal

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Still, we havent talked about integrating palliative care into psychiatry or in the care of those with severe mental illness. What does it look like to take a palliative approach to severe mental illness? Is “terminal” mental illness a thing? For more details, please click here. (AP AP Recruit Job No.

Illness 101

Illness Mental Health IT Patient-Centered 101

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

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

As she said, when you think about the hardest patients you’ve cared for, in nearly all cases there was some aspect of psychological illness involved. Today we talk with two psychologists who are deeply invested in addressing psychological aspects of care for people living with serious illness. That rings true to me. Eric: Yeah.

Mental Health 122

Mental Health Patient-Centered Illness Screening 122

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

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

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

AUGUST 11, 2022

Susan led the Project on Death in America’s Faculty Scholars program , used her dual training in internal medicine and psychiatry to shine a light on psychosocial aspects of palliative care, and founded the Department of Psychosocial Care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. . AlexSmithMD . Transcript.

Illness 109

Illness IT Family Families 109

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

A “Three-Stage Protocol” for Serious Illness Conversations: Reframing Communication in Real Time Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast. Eric: Well, this is the part that I love about your article, too, is that it’s not just these big, big family meetings where miscommunication happens. What else?

Family 144

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 144

GeriPal

OCTOBER 20, 2022

This all came out from JAGS just published their first Clin-STAR corner, which is, and we’ll talk about what that is, but it’s a series of articles bringing in specialists to talk about updates in the last couple years within their field. So this point led us to select these articles. One of your articles addresses that.

Complication 52

Complication Patient-Centered IT Patients 52

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.

IT 105

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?

Family 97

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 97

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.

IT 96

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

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? The prognosis nudge did nothing.

Patient-Centered 116

Patient-Centered Hospital IT Illness 116

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

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 2, 2024

This week, we talk about the other major palliative care trial of default palliative care consults for hospitalized older adults with COPD, kidney disease, or dementia, published in the same issue of JAMA. And PAIR stands for the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center. Alex, who are our guests today?

Consulting 120

Consulting Hospital Patient-Centered IT 120

GeriPal

APRIL 4, 2024

The hospital refused without a court order, and the case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court. The Cruzan ruling led to a flood of interest in Advance Directives, and eventually to the Patient Self Determination Act, which mandates provision of information about advanced directives to all hospitalized patients.

Family 112

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 112

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

We also briefly mention Susan Wong’s terrific studies that found a disconnect between older adults with renal failure’s expressed values, focused on comfort, and their advance care planning and end-of-life care received, which focused on life extension; and another study that found quality of life was sustained until late in the illness course.

Management 116

Management Patient-Centered Patients IT 116

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?

Patients 72

Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 72

GeriPal

OCTOBER 12, 2023

I love this series of articles because each presents a component of a practical, patient-centered approach to patient-surgeon communication and decision making, and language surgeons (and surgical trainees) can start using in their next patient visit. I adored this article. Alexis, welcome to GeriPal. Alexis: Thanks for having me.

IT 128

IT Family Families Patient-Centered 128

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

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. And so here’s a picture of four healthcare providers behind bars.

IT 145

IT Hospital Patients Illness 145

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.

Telehealth 105

Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

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.

IT 113

IT Provider Patients Family 113

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.

IT 137

IT Family Families Physicals 137

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

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

We’ve got a, Sheryl published a great article, and Kenny and Ken published an editorial for that article. And that’s why I think your article is so important is that we need standards. I mean, people who used to be in hospitals are now with quicker DRGs. And which journal again? Eric: JAMA Network Open.

Community 97

Community IT Mental Health Medical 97

GeriPal

JUNE 15, 2023

” And Bing responded, I should ask about how AI can help identify patients who need palliative care and reduce hospitalizations, what are the benefits and challenges of using AI in decision-making, communication, palliative care, and how could AI support the quality of life and dignity of patients for those who are receiving palliative care?

IT 99

IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 99