GeriPal

DECEMBER 2, 2022

She directs UCSF MERI’s patient, family, and clinician support with classes and consultation on resiliency, well-being, and grief. You wrote about how when it comes to talking about patients with dementia, they’re rarely portrayed as resilient. Eric: In the article, you wrote about creative engagement. When was that, 2010?

Community 101

Community IT Individual Patient-Centered 101

GeriPal

JUNE 8, 2023

When I’m on palliative care consults and attending in our hospice unit we have to counsel patients about deprescribing and de-intensifying diabetes medications. And we invited Tamryn Gray from the Dana Farber joins us to ask insightful questions, including: What blood sugar range should we target for patients in the nursing home or hospice?

Diabetes 74

Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Family 74

GeriPal

MAY 8, 2025

Summary Transcript CME Summary Weve covered psychedelics on the podcast beforefirst in 2019 with Ira Byock, where we explored their potential role in medicine , and then again in 2023 with Stacy Fischer, Brian Anderson, and Theora Cimino, focusing on the reasons to approach psychedelic use in patients with caution. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 107

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 107

Rao Doctor

APRIL 3, 2025

In my previous article I covered the types of illness and the causes. Rectal method is more appropriate for infants, children and unconscious or comatose patients who are not able to hold the thermometer in their mouth. Understanding the patient’s medical history is crucial for an accurate diagnosis.

Diagnosis 130

Diagnosis Management Illness Diagnose 130

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

JANUARY 18, 2024

We start off the conversation by talking about whether patients with cancer and cancer pain are really that different, and their paper that was just published on January 11 th in JAMA Oncology showing that substance use disorder is not uncommon in individuals with cancer. Who do we have with us today? Devon, welcome to GeriPal.

Illness 136

Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 136

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

We are going to tackle this question and so many more about coping on this week’s podcast with Dani Chammas , a recurring GeriPal guest, psychiatrist, and palliative care doc at UCSF, and Amanda Moment , a Palliative Care Social Worker at Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Coping in the setting of serious illness.

Illness 125

Illness 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. He also found gaps, including very few studies of patients with lung disease, and little impact of trials on quality of life.

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. This week we dive into the challenges with communication when it comes to life sustaining treatments and CPR. This is Eric Widera. Alex: This is Alex Smith.

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? 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 30, 2025

In one corner, weighing in at decades of experience, well known for heavy hits of bedside assessments, strong patient-family relationships, and a knockout punch of interdisciplinary collaboration, we have in-person palliative care consults. But watch out! Travel time can leave this champ vulnerable to fatigue and no-shows.

Telehealth 105

Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

GeriPal

MARCH 9, 2023

Early data on efficacy in patients with anxiety and demoralization are promising. Two of our guests today, Stacy Fischer and Brian Anderson, are involved in large multicenter trials of psychedelics for patients with advanced cancer (Fischer) or life-limiting illness (Anderson). Research is exploding. You’ve been trained?

Patient-Centered 91

Patient-Centered Community IT Medical 91

GeriPal

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Clinicians “catching” patient life stories. . Our patients aren’t “the 76 year old with heart failure in room 202,” as Heather Coats astutely noted. Storytelling Helps Hospital Staff Discover The Person Within The Patient. A few data based publication links from Person-Centered Narrative Intervention Program of Research: .

Patient-Centered 115

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

First, a clinician’s thoughts must be encoded into words, then transmitted often via sounds, and finally decoded back to thoughts by a patient or family member. Patient Values: Three Important Questions-Tell me more? Simple, right? Not so much, as each one of these steps is fraught with miscommunication. What else?

Family 144

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 144

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.

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

MAY 22, 2025

Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients. Jenny reached out to us because she plays music regularly for her patients, and she said, you should do a podcast about music. And I was looking for articles, and I wasn’t seeing as many as I expected. Come join us.

IT 97

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 97

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? And then I met a patient in clinic once who asked me a lot of really intelligent questions about medical cannabis, what it does. Eloise, welcome to the GeriPal podcast.

Medical 99

Medical IT Patient-Centered Healthcare 99

GeriPal

DECEMBER 15, 2022

In an article in the NEJM (a published article this time, wonder of wonders!) Along the way we address: Is this degree of slowed cognitive decline meaningful to patients or care partners? She was a heart failure patient. But wait, there’s a shiny new anti-amyloid drug, lecanemab! (No Alex: It’s a great choice.

IT 105

IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Illness 105

GeriPal

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Within hours of recording this podcast, I joined a family meeting of an older patient who had multiple medical problems including cancer, and a slow but inexorable decline in function, weight, and cognition. The patient’s capacity to make decisions was marginal, and his sons were shouldering much of the responsibility.

Patient-Centered 132

Patient-Centered Hospital Patients IT 132

GeriPal

OCTOBER 20, 2022

And, who within ASPE guides aging policy and connects policy to every day health challenges experienced by patients and clinicians? Alex: And we are delighted to welcome Rasheeda Hall, who is a physician scientist in the division of nephrology at Duke University School of Medicine, and sees patients at the Durham VA.

Complication 52

Complication Patient-Centered IT Patients 52

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

If the purpose of initiating dialysis is improving function – our complex, frail, older patients are likely to be disappointed. Eric 00:13 And, Alex, I am very excited today because there was an awesome article on Annals on conservative management versus dialysis. This is Eric Widera. Alex 00:12 This is Alex Smith.

Management 116

Management Patient-Centered Patients IT 116

GeriPal

AUGUST 11, 2022

We talk with Susan about how far the field has come, from early days when the attending physician would decide which patients were DNR and place a black “no code” dot in the chart. – Serious Illness Conversation Guide podcast. There was a Stanford article talking about you as a pioneer in this field. AlexSmithMD .

Illness 109

Illness IT Family Families 109

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 I was asking this patient about if he had filled out an advanced directive. Is the patient in your descriptor? Alex 10:41 No, they don’t.

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

GeriPal

JUNE 15, 2023

Alex: And we have Matt DeCamp, who’s joining from the University of Colorado, where he is a primary care internist and bioethicist at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. My worry though with that is that are we going to be expected to be more productive then, to see more patients? Welcome to the GeriPal podcast, Charlotta.

IT 99

IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 99

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary You know when you walk out of a patient’s room and have that sense, “This isn’t going to go well.” The patient is sick and getting sicker, and refuses to let you talk with family or other members of her inner circle. Should you stop at “no?” Lynn: I do. Alex, can you play Send the Sun, by Nikki Lane?

Family 98

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 98

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 73

Illness IT Healthcare Patient-Centered 73

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Accreditation In support of improving patient care, UCSF Office of CME is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

IT 126

IT Patient-Centered Illness Education 126

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Today we talk with experts Janet Ho, Sach Kale, and Julie Childers about opioid use disorder and serious illness. We address: Why is caring for patients with this overlap so hard? Sach Kale set up an outpatient clinic focused on substance use disorder for patients with cancer. What is making this hard for me? What do they do?

Patients 73

Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 73

GeriPal

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary For surgeons and patients, deciding if and when to operate can be challenging. Often, the way surgeons communicate about these decisions doesn’t make things any easier for themselves or their patients. We hope you enjoy this episode. Alexis, welcome to GeriPal. Alexis: Thanks for having me. Alexis: Yeah.

IT 128

IT Family Families Patient-Centered 128

GeriPal

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Caveat as well that RCTs should not be placed on pedestal as the only answer- often patients enrolled in RCTs do not represent real world patients – observational studies do. For a trial to have value, it should not exclude patients over age 80, or those with dementia, or patients residing in nursing homes.

Patient-Centered 126

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 126

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. Participants were critically ill and intubated. P AI R stands for Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center.

Patient-Centered 117

Patient-Centered Hospital IT Illness 117

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

The illness narratives suffering, healing, and the human condition. I think even the word patient, patient, I think, comes from the word suffer, the one who suffers. 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 Family Families Physicals 137

GeriPal

APRIL 4, 2024

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. You write about this, you’ve written this New England Journal article, you’ve written past articles.

Family 112

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 112

GeriPal

JUNE 30, 2022

You have a patient with dementia severe enough that she cannot recognize relatives. A huge part of this decision rests on (1) her previously stated wishes, values, and goals (prior to the onset of dementia); and (2) the outcomes of surgery for patients with dementia. Summary Transcript Summary. She falls and breaks her hip.

Patient-Centered 101

Patient-Centered Complication Patients IT 101

GeriPal

APRIL 24, 2025

We and our guests have noticed that in our clinical practices, patients and caregivers seem to be asking for such treatments more frequently. We discuss an article they wrote about PULET for the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, including: What makes a PULET a PULET? Ivermectin to treat cancer. Stem cell treatments.

Patient-Centered 77

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 77