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 73

Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Families 73

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. What do different patient populations need? But watch out! Alex 01:06 Yeah, go in person.

Telehealth 105

Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

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 96

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

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. Who follows the patient once the cancer goes into remission? Why am I having difficulty with this patient? Why am I feeling frustrated with this patient?

Patients 72

Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 72

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

First, we’ve invited Jerry Gurwitz to talk about his recently published article in JAMA titled The Paradoxical Decline of Geriatric Medicine as a Profession (while it’s not the most upbeat title for the future of geriatrics, Jerry sees it as a call to action). I was going to start off by asking Jerry about why he wrote the JAMA article.

Board-Certified 91

Board-Certified IT Community Medical Student 91

GeriPal

JANUARY 25, 2024

He also found gaps, including very few studies of patients with lung disease, and little impact of trials on quality of life. The article we discuss today, also published in JAMA , addresses these two gaps. Panelists David Bekelman, Lyndsay DeGroot, and Diah Martina have no relationships to disclose. Important implications.

Patient-Centered 122

Patient-Centered IT Illness Patients 122

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Panelists BJ Miller and Naomi Saks have no relationships to disclose. 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 Families Family Physicals 137

GeriPal

MAY 18, 2023

There are some older adults in whom these are the correct drugs, either because of their particular clinical circumstances or because shared decision making and patient values and preferences. So we want to alert clinicians as well as patients and policy makers to the presence of these drugs. Is this the right drug for this patient?”

Medical 97

Medical IT Patients Clinic 97

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

JANUARY 16, 2025

So I think the first reason that we saw and felt the opportunity was ripe for updating was that some of us had come across some anecdotal examples of patients expressing some offense to that terminology. And I was asking this patient about if he had filled out an advanced directive. Is the patient in your descriptor?

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

Does it improve outcomes that patients, caregivers, and clinicians care about? hint: 80% can be done in advance by patients or caregivers) Why is it that some oncologists are resistant to conducting a geriatric assessment, yet have no problem ordering tests that cost thousands of dollars? Welcome back, William. William: Thanks so much.

Patient-Centered 129

Patient-Centered IT Patients Clinic 129

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. Rather, most of us live and make decisions in relationship to one another.

Families 97

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 97

GeriPal

OCTOBER 17, 2024

We talk about what is heart failure, particularly HFpEF, how we treat it (including the use of sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2’s), and how we should apply guidelines to individual patients, especially those with multimorbidity who are taking a lot of other medications. When I see a patient? Matthew, I get the lyrics.

Primary Care 113

Primary Care Patient-Centered IT Patients 113

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

GeriPal

JANUARY 18, 2024

Panelists Katie Fitzgerald Jones and Jessica Merlin have no relationships to disclose. We got a couple of articles to discuss and a lot of different components of this. Eric: Which brings us to an article. laughter] Eric: Okay, Katie, we’ve got a lot to cover with substance use disorder. And so, let’s help them.

Illness 136

Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 136

GeriPal

JULY 28, 2022

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. Would you also just mind mentioning kind of the JPSM article too?

Illness 110

Illness Hospital Patient-Centered Patients 110

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. Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guest Laurie Dornbrand has no relationships to disclose.

Families 112

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 112

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

And Bill Andereck is still haunted by the decision he made to have the police break down the door to rescue his patient who attempted suicide in the 1980s, as detailed in this essay in the Cambridge Quarterly of HealthCare Ethics. So while you don’t have to, we’re gonna summarize these articles. The patient case.

Patients 98

Patients IT Patient-Centered Hospital 98

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. Then, “Keep your hand up if you frequently refer patients with cancer pain to a psychologist?” Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. That rings true to me.

Mental Health 122

Mental Health Patient-Centered Illness Screening 122

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. Gordon Alwasa.

Illness 107

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 107

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. My Life, My Story: VA’s healthcare improvements through deliberate storytelling – YouTube. Storytelling Helps Hospital Staff Discover The Person Within The Patient.

Patient-Centered 115

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

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 a serious illness about a patient encounter you had with somebody who used an. You probably haven’t read in a while what that patient encounter was like. Should I laugh at that?

Illness 125

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

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

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

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. We discuss the moral distress that clinicians felt including, as one physician put it, a sense of your soul being ripped out.

Hospital 125

Hospital IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

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. There was a Stanford article talking about you as a pioneer in this field. There was no conversation with the patient or the family about this.

Illness 109

Illness IT Families Family 109

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guest hosts Lynn Flint and Anne Kelly have no relationships to disclose. The ones who are publishing interesting articles are easy as we knew MAID is always going to be a controversial topic. Alex: And, I like Diane Meyer’s “Matching treatment to patient goals.”

IT 126

IT Patient-Centered Illness Education 126

GeriPal

OCTOBER 5, 2023

We’ve invited Jacqueline Kruser and Bob Arnold on this week’s podcast to talk about their recently published JAMA Viewpoint article titled “ Reconsidering the Language of Serious Illness. ” You recently published an article in the New Yorker titled, I can’t even read my own, what was the title again? This is Eric Widera.

Illness 136

Illness IT Patient-Centered Families 136

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

First, in our editorial, we expressed concern about the length of stay metric not being patient centric, though important for health systems focused on cost savings. Panelists Kate Courtright and Scott Halpern have no relationships to disclose. And, of course, this is what families of patients undergoing palliative care go through.

Consulting 120

Consulting Hospital Patient-Centered IT 120

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. And then there are a number of groups that go out in vans and cars and go out into the surrounding community of Kerala to provide care for patients who are in their homes.

Community 115

Community IT Relationship Healthcare 115

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

MARCH 13, 2025

Yes, it means to cloak, but theres more Whole-person-care Total pain Healing as a process distinct from the deterioration of the body Sympomatologists The patient and family as the unit of care Our guests referenced many articles on this podcast, linked above and below. I loved the relationship that we developed and the fun we had.

IT 104

IT Patient-Centered Families Family 104

GeriPal

JANUARY 26, 2023

Our guests Tim Farrell, Ramona Rhodes, and Nancy Lunderbjerg wrote an article in JAGS on this issue, and Sharon Brangman wrote a separate JAGS article on the need to achieve diversity in study populations. The article was titled, “ Change is coming ” – which also gives you a hint as to today’s song request. Eric: Yes.

IT 91

IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Patients 91

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 ). But in the end, I see these as my patients and I’m trying to define what is the right model.

Provider 117

Provider Illness IT Healthcare 117

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. If you look back to some of my cartoons from late in residency, they showed just how dehumanized I felt and definitely give windows into how dehumanized I imagined my patients to be. Nathan: I do.

IT 145

IT Hospital Patients Illness 145

GeriPal

JANUARY 20, 2023

But if you want to learn more, check out these links: The report by NASEM titled “ The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality ” The website for the Moving Forward We will also link to the JAGS articles co-authored by seven committee members that focus on specific recommendations of the NASEM report when they get published (stay tuned).

Finance 95

Finance Board-Certified IT Provider 95

GeriPal

MAY 4, 2023

But when I have, I find that they’re often some of the hardest patients to care for. I just had this experience where in the space I was in, very few people believed that this was even a legit thing to study and certainly that it would make a difference for the patients we cared for. What are the patients that we remember?

IT 83

IT Families Family Illness 83