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

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. Eric 00:42 So on this podcast, we’re gonna be talking about what every healthcare provider should know about radiation oncology. Evie, welcome to GeriPal.

Patient-Centered 102

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? Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guests Alex Gamble and Brianna Williamson have no relationships to disclose. AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s) ™. Alex Gamble, do you have a song?

Illness 129

Illness IT Diagnosis Patient-Centered 129

Plum Health

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Have you ever found yourself in need of medical attention but overwhelmed by the myriad of clinics and healthcare options out there? Navigating the healthcare system can be daunting, especially when you're unwell or caring for someone who is. These services go beyond treating illnesses; they aim to keep you healthy in the first place.

Clinic 52

Clinic Primary Care Doctor Primary Care Chronic Condition 52

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

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. AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s) ™. Who do we have with us today?

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

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

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

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

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

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. Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s) ™.

Illness 133

Illness Patient-Centered Patients IT 133

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

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

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.

Family 98

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 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. 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 15, 2022

Along the way we address: Is this degree of slowed cognitive decline meaningful to patients or care partners? Eric: So patient narrative storytelling, independent of what we call it, I’d like to turn to both of you and just how you got interested in this as a subject. She was a heart failure patient.

IT 105

IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Illness 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 performed for many palliative patients, and that’s when I started to understand.

IT 97

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 97

GeriPal

JUNE 15, 2023

Rethinking Automation and Inequity in Healthcare [link] [link] [link] MD Calc approach to inclusion of race [link] —— Transcript Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal podcast. My worry though with that is that are we going to be expected to be more productive then, to see more patients? This is Eric Widera. Charlotta: Thank you.

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IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 99

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guest hosts Lynn Flint and Anne Kelly have no relationships to disclose. So, I don’t see a huge value of putting her down as a durable power of attorney for healthcare. AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s) ™. Alex: Okay, interesting. ” Very specific, rare circumstance.

IT 126

IT Patient-Centered Illness Education 126

GeriPal

JULY 11, 2024

It’s a jampacked 50 minutes, filled with pearls on taking care of patients with liver disease. Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guests Kirsten Engel, Sarah Gillespie-Heyman, Brittany Waterman, & Amy Johnson have no relationships to disclose. AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s) ™. And that piqued my interest.

Patient-Centered 109

Patient-Centered IT Patients Clinic 109

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

MAY 9, 2024

all of whom focus their efforts on educating the general public about living and dying with a serious illness. Widera and Smith have no relationships to disclose. Guests Matt Tyler, Sammy Winemaker and Hsien Seow have no relationships to disclose. Julie McFadden discloses an employee relationship started on 15Apr2024.

Education 127

Education IT Illness Healthcare 127

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

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

The illness narratives suffering, healing, and the human condition. 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. Hospital Chaplains, Spirituality, and Pain Management: A Qualitative Study.

IT 137

IT Family Families Physicals 137

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. And I feel like a lot of this is really, you know, moving away from another podcast we did is industrialization of healthcare and really focusing on the individual that’s in front of you. Noelle Marie 01:15 I do.

Individual 82

Individual Community IT Chronic Condition 82

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 . Transcript.

Illness 109

Illness IT Family Families 109

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.

Family 112

Family Families Patient-Centered IT 112

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

If the purpose of initiating dialysis is improving function – our complex, frail, older patients are likely to be disappointed. Are we seeing people like more older adults, more nursing home patients starting dialysis, and even at a higher gfr? So I wonder if I could turn to either of our nephrologists.

Management 116

Management Patient-Centered Patients IT 116

GeriPal

MARCH 7, 2024

He looked very ill. An end-of-life doula is a non-medical support person that provides a longitudinal relationship with aspects of medical, I mean, aspects of companionship, presence, holding space, some logistics, some practical help, decision making perhaps. The last thing I’ll say is I actually saw his very last performance.

Provider 117

Provider Illness IT Healthcare 117

GeriPal

MAY 12, 2022

Alex: We are honored to welcome Dr. Rajagopal, who goes by Raj, who is the author of Walk with the Weary: Lessons in Humanity in Healthcare. The reasons are tied to the basically poor healthcare in low and middle income countries. Raj is an anesthesiologist turned palliative care doctor. It is not only palliative care.

Community 115

Community IT Relationship Healthcare 115

GeriPal

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

On today’s podcast, we talk with Jane Thomas , Naomi Saks , and Ishwaria Subbiah about the concepts of wellness, well-being, resilience, and burnout, as well as what can be done to truly improve the lives of healthcare providers and bring, I dare say it, joy into our work. I mean, in other work, hard work environments as well.

IT 111

IT Healthcare Healthcare Professional Patient-Centered 111

GeriPal

MARCH 6, 2025

-Alex End Well Talk [link] Resources on the PEACH Program Program Review Paper A recent publication in Longwoods Healthcare Quarterly reviewing the PEACH model. link] PEACH Good Wishes Program A program that provides meaningful gifts for unhoused individuals who are terminally ill. Really looking forward to the conversation.

Healthcare 100

Healthcare IT Community Illness 100

GeriPal

JANUARY 11, 2024

In further contrast to the United States, MAID in Canada is almost entirely administered by a clinician, whereas in the United States patients must self administer. A planned expansion of MAID to include people with mental illness was placed on hold until March 2024. They could have a prognosis of years, or decades. Alex: Thank you.

Illness 144

Illness IT Medical Provider 144

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. You’re talking about a paradigm shift in healthcare.

IT 104

IT Patient-Centered Family Families 104

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. If its potentially unsafe, but has robust evidence, well thats most of the treatments we offer seriously ill patients! Think chemotherapy to imminently dying patients, or CPR.

Patient-Centered 77

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 77

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