GeriPal

JANUARY 23, 2025

Today, we explore four fascinating studies highlighting innovative approaches to reducing medication use and improving patient outcomes. Patients received brochures detailing the risks of gabapentinoids, nonpharmacologic alternatives, and a proposed deprescribing regimen (see here for the brochure ). in the usual care group.

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Specialization IT Patient-Centered Medical 119

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. This is Eric Widera. Alex: This is Alex Smith.

IT 124

IT Hospital Patient-Centered Individual 124

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 yet we’re also in a different place in diabetes monitoring and management. Eric: And you can probably tell already, the topic at hand is diabetes management in late life.

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Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Family 73

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. 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 97

Complication Patient-Centered IT Patients 97

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. But how to talk to patients about the risk and benefits when starting. Ariel: Sure.

Specialization 104

Specialization Medical Patient-Centered Provider 104

GeriPal

JUNE 12, 2025

Summary Transcript CME Summary If you’re anything like me, you might find the process of what happens to patients when they visit a radiation oncologist somewhat mysterious. Anish 01:02 Well, I speak, you know, from a physician lens of some of the patients that I get referred, and by the time there’s. This is not a good option.

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Patient-Centered Referral Patients IT 102

GeriPal

JUNE 27, 2024

How, though, do we navigate anxiety and help our patients who may end up in the anxiety spiral that becomes so hard to get out of? I have so many questions, and I promise we’re going to get to the management of anxiety and serious illness. Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Great to be here.

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Illness IT Diagnosis Patient-Centered 129

Mesa Family Physician

MARCH 13, 2025

This continuity of care is especially important for managing chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease—conditions that respond best to consistent monitoring and adjustment of treatment plans. We work with most major insurance plans and offer transparent pricing options for self-pay patients.

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Family Physician Preventive Care Preventative Care Family 100

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. Understanding the patient’s medical history is crucial for an accurate diagnosis. FEVER FAQs (contd.)

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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

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 . Management of chronic pain in the elderly: focus on transdermal buprenorphine. Transcript.

Illness 102

Illness Patient-Centered IT Patients 102

Plum Health

OCTOBER 11, 2024

It's the first point of contact for all your medical needs, from routine check-ups to managing chronic conditions. These services go beyond treating illnesses; they aim to keep you healthy in the first place. Non-life-threatening illnesses often demand quick relief options. It's not quite an emergency, but you need relief fast.

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Clinic Primary Care Doctor Primary Care Chronic Condition 52

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

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.

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Illness Patient-Centered Screening IT 136

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

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. You probably haven’t read in a while what that patient encounter was like. Coping is something that we see our patients do. This is Eric Widera.

Illness 125

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 125

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Have you ever had that moment when talking to a patient, when you realized that the phrase you just uttered, which you’ve uttered a hundred times before, came out rote and scripted? And in response, the family or patient looked at you like you were from another planet? Summary Transcript Summary. Yeah, I’ve been there too.

Illness 101

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 101

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?

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Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 72

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).

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Illness IT Diagnose Medical 128

GeriPal

JUNE 13, 2024

Summary Transcript Summary I always find cachexia in serious illness puzzling. In today’s podcast, we had the opportunity to learn from a renowned expert in palliative care, Eduardo Bruera, about cachexia and anorexia in serious illness. But the patient would say, well, but it still hurts, though.

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Illness Patient-Centered Patients IT 133

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. 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

AUGUST 29, 2024

Summary Transcript CME Summary Serious illness communication is hard. During the podcast, we reference a newly released second-edition book that our guests published titled “ Navigating Communication with Seriously Ill Patients: Balancing Honesty with Empathy and Hope.” Eric 01:42 So we’ ve got an exciting topic today.

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IT Illness Family Families 132

My Green Doctor

MAY 29, 2025

We must transform healthcare into a frontline responder for climate resilience. This means: Direct influence: Training healthcare professionals to understand and manage the growing connections between environment and illness. Because sustainable healthcare isn’t optional—it’s essential.

Healthcare Professional 52

Healthcare Professional Healthcare Finance Education 52

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

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Think about the last time a patient yelled at you in anger. The last time this happened to me I immediately went on the defensive despite years of training in serious illness communication skills. Ask why: What is underneath the anger for this particular patient? Taking care of the hateful patient.

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Patients IT Family Families 109

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.

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Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 105

GeriPal

JULY 28, 2022

GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness. 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. Additional links: Editorial on Areej’s study. Palliative care in lung and GI cancers.

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

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. What Mattered Then, Now, and Always: Illness Narratives From Persons of Color. What’s in a story?

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Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 115

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. They just kept at it.

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Medical IT Patient-Centered Healthcare 98

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

JULY 11, 2024

It’s a jampacked 50 minutes, filled with pearls on taking care of patients with liver disease. Kirsten 04:16 So, in emergency medicine, obviously, we are interacting and caring for these both exciting and interesting, but also very complex and humbling patients to care for in the ED setting. What’s the connection and why?

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Clinic 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

” 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?

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IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 99

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 performed for many palliative patients, and that’s when I started to understand.

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IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 96

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 no conversation with the patient or the family about this. AlexSmithMD .

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Illness IT Family Families 109

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.

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IT Patient-Centered Illness Education 126