Center for Family Medicine (CFM)

MAY 1, 2025

adults experience mental illness each year. Individuals experience various degrees of well-being, with people at one end of the spectrum having conditions such as depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia: conditions that can significantly impact daily life and cause distress or impairment. Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Your mental health matters.

Mental Health 52

Mental Health Family Medicine DO Education 52

Center for Family Medicine

APRIL 21, 2025

Types of sleep disorders Poor sleep is possible from an underlying illness or disorder. Studies show that exercise helps individuals fall asleep faster while improving sleep quality. Each individual circumstance is different, so combining these therapies may be necessary for optimal results.

Consulting 52

Consulting Individual Physicals Chronic Disease 52

Plum Health

OCTOBER 6, 2024

In a traditional healthcare setup, doctors are often overwhelmed with large patient rosters, leaving them with limited time for each individual. One of my favorite success stories involves a patient who had a strong family history of diabetes. In a concierge model, however, I had the time to help him develop a proactive health plan.

Healthcare 52

Healthcare Appointment Chronic Condition Patient-Centered 52

GeriPal

DECEMBER 2, 2022

So on today’s podcast we invite four brilliant individuals to talk about their perspective on how to change how we as a society and health care system partner with individuals with dementia. She directs UCSF MERI’s patient, family, and clinician support with classes and consultation on resiliency, well-being, and grief.

Community 101

Community IT Individual Patient-Centered 101

PEMBlog

MAY 1, 2025

Recognize key diagnostic features that help differentiate Parvovirus B19 from other viral exanthems and systemic illnesses. Counsel families and caregiversincluding pregnant household contactson the risks, exposures, and infection control considerations related to Parvovirus B19. Sometimes I share it with patients and families.

Complication 83

Complication Patient-Centered Patients Diagnosis 83

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? So my background clinically is working with cancer patients and families and those who underwent bone marrow transplant, and a lot of times for their treatment regimen, it includes steroids.

Diabetes 73

Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Family 73

GeriPal

MAY 5, 2022

We talk with Nick and Meg about: Why hearing loss is important not just in geriatrics but also for those caring for seriously ill individuals. Communication techniques we can use when talking to individuals with hearing loss. But individuals who have hearing loss, there’s several problems.

IT 102

IT Screening Hospital Clinic 102

Mesa Family Physician

JUNE 24, 2025

While many patients are familiar with terms like “family doctor” or “primary care,” the field of internal medicine often raises questions: What exactly does an internist do? Internist vs Family Doctor: What’s the Difference? A common comparison is between an internist and a family doctor (or general practitioner).

Internal Medicine 130

Internal Medicine GP Family Doctor Primary Care 130

PEMBlog

OCTOBER 2, 2024

uh, ill defined epigastric or chest pain, and it’s often worse by eating or lying down after meals. Have a detailed discussion with the patient and family and do shared decision making in terms of interventions, the GI does, and again, these will be the gold standards. Like, you can totally order this as an outpatient.

Diagnosis 52

Diagnosis Management Patient-Centered Diagnose 52

GeriPal

AUGUST 4, 2022

My take home from this is that while the most preferred explanation for deprescribing statins and sedative-hypnotics is one focused on the risk of side effects, we also need to individualize it to the patient and the medication that they are taking. Maybe that’s where the individualizing it, the person that’s front of me.

Specialization 104

Specialization Medical Patient-Centered Provider 104

Physician's Weekly

JUNE 23, 2025

As a family physician, my days are filled with caring for individuals and families across the lifespan and in multiple healthcare settings. While natural infection can indeed lead to immunity, it comes at the cost of potentially severe illness, complications, and even death.

Community 80

Community Vaccination Individual Illness 80

Doctors for America

JUNE 30, 2025

That harm will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of already-marginalized groups, including pregnant people, people with disabilities, low-income families and individuals, and communities of color. How Are Income and Wealth Linked to Health and Longevity (Urban Institute and Center on Society and Health, Apr.

Healthcare 59

Healthcare Community Family Families 59

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. Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 136

Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 136

GeriPal

AUGUST 29, 2024

Summary Transcript CME Summary Serious illness communication is hard. We must often deliver complex medical information that carries heavy emotional weight in pressured settings to individuals with varying cultural backgrounds, values, and beliefs. Eric 01:42 So we’ ve got an exciting topic today.

IT 132

IT Illness Family Families 132

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. Adapting Palliative Care Skills to Provide Substance Use Disorder Treatment to Patients With Serious Illness . Katie, before we jump into the topic of buprenorphine in serious illness, what’s the song request?

Illness 102

Illness Patient-Centered IT Nurse Practitioner 102

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

The patient is sick and getting sicker, and refuses to let you talk with family or other members of her inner circle. We owe it to the patient to explore the reasons behind the “no,” commonly not wanting to be a burden to their family. Should you stop at “no?” AlexSmithMD Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast.

Family 97

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 97

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

And in response, the family or patient looked at you like you were from another planet? Coming off as rote and scripted during a serious illness conversation can have a similar off-putting impact on patients and families. Links: – Uncanny Valley post on Josh’s fantastic substack Notes from a Family Meeting.

Illness 101

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 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. So I first want to just say thank you to Ernesto’s family. Eric: And can you tell me about Ernesto? Sunita: Yes.

Illness 136

Illness IT Patient-Centered Family 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

JUNE 19, 2025

Eric 01:04 So we’re going to be talking about transgender health in older adults and those with serious illness. To note that I am an individual who goes through this world. I face a lot of different stressors and challenges similar to other individuals, but I also have my own unique experiences. Noelle Marie 01:15 I do.

Individual 85

Individual Community IT Chronic Condition 85

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

JULY 21, 2022

Often the work of the certified driving rehab specialist is to assess the older drivers goals, assess prognosis for driving, and help the family navigate discussions around driving cessation (hmmm…sounds like an approach to family meetings). Love to talk about also in the serious illness population. Eric: Yeah. Alex: Yeah.

Family 102

Family Families IT Diagnosis 102

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

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Our loves, our triumphs, our failures, our work, our families. . 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. It’s since spread to over 70 VAs. Bennett, C.R.,

Patient-Centered 115

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

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. It is really difficult for the patients and the families. Young adulthood is super hard. Daniel, does that play a role as far as… I have a 14-year-old son. Thoughts on that?

IT 83

IT Family Families Illness 83

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

Social workers augment a team’s ability to provide whole-person care, often aiding to identify and meaningfully address the wide variety of challenges and unmet needs faced by individuals and families facing serious illness. And so when you have that, that’s so good for the family. That’s so good for us.

IT 102

IT Family Families Clinic 102

GeriPal

APRIL 4, 2024

If they didn’t do it all by themselves, they talked to the family and it was a conversation, but also there wasn’t a whole lot that doctors can do then. What words to use? Is the POLST useful? Under what circumstances? Should we abandon the term, “comfort measures?” Bernie: Well, there was a time when doctors made these decisions.

Family 112

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 112

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. How should we care for unrepresented individuals in inpatient and outpatient settings? Why not use the older term unbefriended? Is that fair?

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 109

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Fayron: I think I was interested in family caregiving early on because I had it in my family, but it wasn’t until my postdoc days when I was writing my application that I needed to narrow it down. I think, again, it’s the person’s individual, their preference. Alex: Yeah, I like that approach too.

Community 128

Community Family Families IT 128

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

The illness narratives suffering, healing, and the human condition. So there’s this, what is suffering to the individual, and is there some threshold that we could say, “This is real suffering,” or “This is the suffering we talk about in geriatrics or palliative care”? Pain Manag Nurs. doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2023.11.004.

IT 137

IT Family Families Physicals 137

GeriPal

DECEMBER 15, 2022

So I think as palliative care clinicians, we use narrative as we try to understand more about the persons that we’re caring for and their families. Been in the hospital four times, vented, been told the story to her family, she won’t live. Tell me about your illness. How did you get into this? Heather: Sure.

IT 105

IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Illness 105

GeriPal

MARCH 24, 2022

Then listen to these prior podcasts with Sean Morrison and Rebecca Sudore about this issue, and we recently discussed differences between Advance Care Planning and Serious Illness Communication with Juliet Jacobsen and Rachelle Bernacki. . And especially for those who may have nontraditional families. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 72

Illness IT Healthcare Patient-Centered 72

GeriPal

JUNE 22, 2023

But now we have older people dying of older people illnesses. Alex: And are the regulations similar or different in terms of six month required prognosis or less, should the disease take its usual course, or illnesses leading to a short prognosis? In many cases, the families were the victims of the crime. Eric: Mm-hmm.

Family 132

Family Families IT Community 132

The Clinical Problem Solvers

MAY 2, 2022

Dr. Okah is a family medicine clinician and NRSA research fellow at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and she studies the association between the use of race in medical decision-making and beliefs regarding the etiology of disparities in health outcomes.

Healthcare 52

Healthcare Utilities Hospital Internal Medicine 52

GeriPal

MAY 9, 2024

all of whom focus their efforts on educating the general public about living and dying with a serious illness. Alex: And Sammy Winemaker, who’s a palliative care physician and Associate Clinical Professor at McMaster University in the Department of Family Medicine, Division of Palliative Care. Sammy: Thank you so much.

Education 127

Education IT Illness Healthcare 127

GeriPal

JULY 28, 2022

GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness. This is my early father’s day gift from the family. 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. Transcript. Eric: Yeah.

Illness 110

Illness Hospital Patient-Centered Patients 110

GeriPal

JUNE 30, 2022

Eric: So we’re going to be talking about dementia and considerations around surgery for individuals with dementia. And then, the family, her kids got together, my wife and her brother and sister got together and said, wait a minute, mom did not want this, right? Welcome to the GeriPal podcast, Samir. Samir: Thanks, Alex and Eric.

Patient-Centered 101

Patient-Centered Complication Patients IT 101