Rao Doctor

APRIL 3, 2025

In my previous article I covered the types of illness and the causes. When assessing a fever, we doctors employ a systematic approach to ensure accurate diagnosis and effective management. F (38°C) is generally regarded as indicative of illness. What are the Management and Treatment Options in a case of fever?

Diagnosis 130

Diagnosis Management Illness Diagnose 130

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. And when that article went to print, it just went ballistic. 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 Patients 102

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Summary Transcript CME Summary We recently published a podcast on palliative care for kidney failure, focusing on conservative kidney management. Today we’re going to focus upstream on the decision to initiate dialysis vs conservative kidney management. This is Eric Widera. Alex 00:12 This is Alex Smith. So we got a lot to cover.

Management 116

Management Patient-Centered Patients IT 116

GeriPal

JANUARY 18, 2024

In particular, we talk about Katie’s and Jesica’s paper in NEJM titled “ Juggling Two Full-Time Jobs — Methadone Clinic Engagement and Cancer Care ,” which described the difficulty in managing cancer pain and methadone for opioid use disorder. Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast. This is Eric Widera. Alex: This is Alex Smith.

Illness 136

Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 136

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? Coping in the setting of serious illness. Coping in the setting of a serious illness about a patient encounter you had with somebody who used an. Should I laugh at that? So you just published not too long ago.

Illness 125

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

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

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? Eric 01:34 Oh, I love that. Dani 01:36 More to talk about there.

Illness 101

Illness Mental Health IT Patient-Centered 101

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

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

JULY 28, 2022

GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness. And I just want to highlight, Jennifer has a great JPSM article that just came out. But at that time I was struck by how in that field, there wasn’t a focus or really interest in symptom management and support for patients and their families.

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

AUGUST 11, 2022

In particular, she reminds us that when we think about the most challenging of our patient encounters, they almost always involve a complex psychosocial dynamic, and this has received far less attention than communication and symptom management issues. . – Serious Illness Conversation Guide podcast. AlexSmithMD . Eric: Yeah.

Illness 109

Illness IT Families Family 109

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 26, 2023

Ann: Well, I think teamwork is key in this space and I am a big baseball fan, big Red Sox fan, which is not a good thing to be right now, but I really think it’s indicative of how we should all be working together on this team to help our seriously ill patients. Eric: I felt that reading the article. Ann: No, he was very excited.

Patient-Centered 132

Patient-Centered Hospital Patients IT 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. And then there was a lot of stuff on coping and symptom management.

Telehealth 105

Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

GeriPal

OCTOBER 24, 2024

If you believe the evidence for efficacy to manage symptoms like neuropathic pain, how do you even start to think about recommending these products to patients? They want to be able to manage their own symptoms. Eric 39:13 No, there was actually in Colorado, I think there was that Atlantic article or New Yorker.

Medical 98

Medical IT Patient-Centered Healthcare 98

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 8, 2022

Unpacking characteristics of spirituality through the lens of persons of colour living with serious illness: The need for nurse-based education to increase understanding of the spiritual dimension in healthcare. What Mattered Then, Now, and Always: Illness Narratives From Persons of Color. Tell me about your illness.

Patient-Centered 115

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

The ones who are publishing interesting articles are easy as we knew MAID is always going to be a controversial topic. Not the most common circumstances that people with serious illness face where attention and understanding of what my goals and values are. Alex: And, it means pain management. Eric: That was the SAT answer.

IT 126

IT Patient-Centered Illness Education 126

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Hospital Chaplains, Spirituality, and Pain Management: A Qualitative Study. Pain Manag Nurs. 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.

IT 137

IT Families Family Physicals 137

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

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

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 Families Family Patient-Centered 128

GeriPal

MAY 22, 2025

Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients. And I was looking for articles, and I wasn’t seeing as many as I expected. Jenny 04:45 Like, the last article was, like, 10 years ago. Look for Jenny to potentially appear on the show Americas Got Talent (no lie).

IT 96

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

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 Families 113

GeriPal

JUNE 15, 2023

For example, there was one article that we reviewed for Jags where it asked great questions, they gave great prompts, and ChatGPT answered great questions about antipsychotics and gave a list of references to back up ChatGPT’s assertions. Because the in serious illness care and care for older adults, their care is often very complex.

IT 99

IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 99

GeriPal

APRIL 24, 2025

We discuss an article they wrote about PULET for the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, including: What makes a PULET a PULET? If its potentially unsafe, but has robust evidence, well thats most of the treatments we offer seriously ill patients! Why did you even decide to write this article? Think vitamins.

Patient-Centered 77

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 77

GeriPal

DECEMBER 14, 2023

On this podcast we talk about her paper in JAMA Internal Medicine which studied three hospitals that varied in the intensity of care they provided to seriously ill patients. And it was amazing just seeing the differences in how end-of-life care is managed at those three institutions, which were all a subway right away from each other.

Hospital 125

Hospital IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

GeriPal

MAY 4, 2023

There’s all this stuff that we’re supposed to be doing at that stage of life and then you add the complexity of the serious illness. If there’s a serious illness, all of a sudden, you’re in this place where now you’re struggling between this growing independence and also then this dependence that you may have.

IT 83

IT Families Family Illness 83

GeriPal

MARCH 7, 2024

Check out the Pub Crawl GeriPal post for more info, and follow #HPMParty on Twitter to keep us as we crawl! ** In the last several years, I’ve seen more and more articles about end-of-life doulas ( like this NY Times article from 2021 ). He looked very ill. My wife is also a physician and she said he’s dying.

Provider 117

Provider Illness IT Healthcare 117

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 so there’s complexity in Understanding how each state manages this. Because I mean, California is different. They have an advance directive.

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

GeriPal

AUGUST 24, 2023

Fox gives patients hope there may be a place that illness doesn’t touch Depression is a Liar Why is Being a Patient Such a Difficult Pill to Swallow Better Patient Care Calls for a ‘Platinum Rule’ to Replace the Golden One. And decided, interesting article, but it raised as many questions as it answered.

Patient-Centered 98

Patient-Centered Patients IT Illness 98

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. ” And the requests from management were to ask her to prescribe antipsychotics to try and sedate some of these behaviors away.

Community 97

Community IT Mental Health Medical 97

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.

Families 106

Families Family IT Patients 106

GeriPal

JUNE 30, 2022

Should she be treated non-operatively, with aggressive symptom management? 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. Eric: Yeah. Eric: Yeah.

Patient-Centered 101

Patient-Centered Complication Patients IT 101

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

On todays podcast, weve invited Nathaniel Chin back to the GeriPal podcast to talk about what primary care needs to manage this new world of Alzheimers disease effectively. And then the family tells me they can’t keep an appointment, they can’t manage their finances. What is the role of the amyloid antibody treatments?

Primary Care 95

Primary Care Diagnosis Screening IT 95