The Clinical Problem Solvers

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

Learn tangible ways to center the Indigenous communities in advocacy efforts at the interpersonal and institutional level. Indigenous Peoples continue to suffer disproportionately from health inequities, mental illness, poverty, climate change and police brutality, all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community 52

Community Patient-Centered Medical Student Medical 52

PEMBlog

MAY 17, 2023

Furthermore, the connection between physical and functional symptoms is inextricably linked in many patients. Why then do we persist with the “is it medical/organic or psych” question? These articles will take another look at the content included in this episode. We have developed a series of pain focused episodes.

Patient-Centered 68

Patient-Centered Mental Health Management Finance 68

GeriPal

OCTOBER 13, 2022

When I’m on service these days there is inevitably a moment when a resident says “Patient so-and-so is on X” – and I have absolutely no idea what X is. These articles are part of a new series called Clin-Star Corner , a new series in JAGS that reviews practice changing articles in the care of older adults. .

Complication 97

Complication Patient-Centered IT Patients 97

GeriPal

JANUARY 23, 2025

Summary Transcript CME Summary Its another deprescribing super special on today’s GeriPal Podcast, where we delve into the latest research on deprescribing medications prescribed to older adults. Today, we explore four fascinating studies highlighting innovative approaches to reducing medication use and improving patient outcomes.

Specialization 119

Specialization IT Patient-Centered Medical 119

GeriPal

AUGUST 4, 2022

Today we are coming back for more (or less given the content), talking about the following articles with their lead authors: First up, we talk with Ariel Green about her article in JAMA Network on preferred phrases a clinician may use to explain why they should reduce or stop the medication. That’s huge! Welcome, Ariel.

Specialization 104

Specialization Medical Patient-Centered Provider 104

GeriPal

APRIL 27, 2023

We deepen ourselves into the fabric of care and we make healthcare work for people who are seriously ill. How do we reduce barriers to access for palliative care, and how do we ensure that people with serious illness and palliative care needs really get that care? Attendee 9: Early integration of palliative care in medical education.

Specialization 93

Specialization Illness Healthcare Patient-Centered 93

GeriPal

MARCH 14, 2024

This simple challenge was focused on putting ourselves in the shoes of our patients with dysphagia who are prescribed thickened liquids. And I think that we’re at this kind of crossroads right now in dysphagia, and dysphagia management where our patients are suffering. We revisit it, and make things better for our patients.

IT 124

IT Hospital Patient-Centered Individual 124

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. What are the risks and rewards of new classes of medications? When I’m on nursing home call, the most common page I receive is for a blood sugar value. Happy to be here.

Diabetes 73

Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Families 73

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

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

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? laughter] Alex 01:39 Material here for songs related to medical marijuana or marijuana in general. Eloise, welcome to the GeriPal podcast. Eloise 00:59 Thank you so much.

Medical 98

Medical IT Patient-Centered Healthcare 98

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

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.

Patient-Centered 91

Patient-Centered Community IT Medical 91

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?

Illness 101

Illness Mental Health IT Patient-Centered 101

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 Families 136

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Medical communication is tough, although fundamentally at its most basic unit of delivery, it includes really only three steps. 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. Simple, right?

Families 144

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 144

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

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

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

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

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

MAY 22, 2025

Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients. You can hear Tyler and I having a great time singing together and sharing stories around his podcast My Medical Mixtape. And so this is a shout out to our inpatient palliative team at Dell Medical School. Come join us.

IT 96

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

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

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. We’re going to be talking about the American Geriatric Society position statement on making medical treatment decisions. Yael 02:12 Thank you.

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

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

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 Families Family 109

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

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

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?” We’re excited to welcome a full slate of guests today.

Families 97

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 97

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. But my medical training kicked in.

Patients 72

Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 72

PEMBlog

MAY 24, 2023

Patient that are agitated should always be treated with dignity and respect. These articles will take another look at the content included in this episode. This entails utilizing the least invasive non-pharmacologic means of assisting them, before moving to physical or chemical restraints.

Management 54

Management Patient-Centered Physicals Finance 54

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

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. Other states set lower bars, including oral assignment of surrogate decision-makers. What words to use?

Families 112

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 112