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?

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Diabetes Management Patient-Centered Families 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. 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.

Patient-Centered 103

Patient-Centered Referral Patients IT 103

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 109

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 109

Plum Health

OCTOBER 11, 2024

These services go beyond treating illnesses; they aim to keep you healthy in the first place. Your ongoing appointments help foster a strong patient-doctor relationship , making it easier to discuss your concerns and receive personalized care. Do you prefer a full-service medical center or a walk-in clinic?

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Clinic Primary Care Doctor Primary Care Chronic Condition 52

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?

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Illness Patient-Centered Screening Clinic 137

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 126

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 126

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 123

Patient-Centered IT Illness Patients 123

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. Today Liz Dzeng discusses her journey towards studying this issue in detail. I guess the VA is federal though.

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Hospital IT Patient-Centered Patients 126

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 102

Illness IT Patient-Centered Patients 102

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.

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Telehealth Patient-Centered IT Patients 106

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. So I thought this was a nice fit.

Illness 134

Illness Patient-Centered Patients IT 134

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. Integration of Person-Centered Narratives Into the Electronic Health Record: Study Protocol.

Patient-Centered 116

Patient-Centered Illness Healthcare IT 116

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 123

Mental Health Patient-Centered Illness Screening 123

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

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 98

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 98

GeriPal

JULY 28, 2022

GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness. Alex: And we are also delighted to welcome Areej El-Jawahri, who is an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital as well, who specializes in blood cancers. Additional links: Editorial on Areej’s study. Palliative care in lung and GI cancers. Transcript.

Illness 111

Illness Hospital Patient-Centered Patients 111

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 98

IT Patient-Centered Patients Board-Certified 98

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 110

Patient-Centered IT Patients Healthcare 110

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.

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IT Patient-Centered Healthcare Illness 106

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 74

Patients Clinic Patient-Centered Illness 74

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 110

Patient-Centered IT Patients Clinic 110

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? Let it be (hint hint). So I wonder if I could turn to either of our nephrologists.

Management 117

Management Patient-Centered Patients IT 117

GeriPal

AUGUST 11, 2022

Susan led the Project on Death in America’s Faculty Scholars program , used her dual training in internal medicine and psychiatry to shine a light on psychosocial aspects of palliative care, and founded the Department of Psychosocial Care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. . AlexSmithMD . Transcript.

Illness 110

Illness IT Families Family 110

GeriPal

APRIL 4, 2024

The hospital refused without a court order, and the case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court. 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.

Families 113

Families Family Patient-Centered IT 113

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

This week, we talk about the other major palliative care trial of default palliative care consults for hospitalized older adults with COPD, kidney disease, or dementia, published in the same issue of JAMA. Panelists Kate Courtright and Scott Halpern have no relationships to disclose. and consulting for Papa Health. Kate: Thank you.

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Consulting Hospital Patient-Centered IT 122

GeriPal

JUNE 15, 2023

Alex: And we have Matt DeCamp, who’s joining from the University of Colorado, where he is a primary care internist and bioethicist at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. My worry though with that is that are we going to be expected to be more productive then, to see more patients? The patient is crying in front of you.

IT 100

IT Patient-Centered Patients Healthcare 100

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.

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Education IT Illness Healthcare 128

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 78

Patient-Centered IT Hospital Patients 78

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Hospital Chaplains, Spirituality, and Pain Management: A Qualitative Study. 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.

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IT Families Family Physicals 137

GeriPal

MARCH 13, 2025

Summary Transcript CME Summary As far as weve come in the 50 years since Balfour Mount and Sue Britton opened the first palliative care at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, have we lost something along the way? In todays podcast we welcome some of the early pioneers in palliative care to talk about the roots of palliative care.

IT 105

IT Patient-Centered Families Family 105

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

MAY 12, 2022

I mean, just such struggles around corruption in hospitals, access to opioid pain medication, and you almost had to wait until a friend of yours was in power, so you could have access, get permission. It was wonderful for me, as a rehab doctor, to be able to see patients with spinal cord injuries and how they were living in their homes.

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Community IT Relationship Healthcare 116

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 79

Patient-Centered IT Patients Illness 79

GeriPal

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

How to be sensitive to the risks of stereotyping based on recommendations from the few members of the board to the many heterogeneous patients served? I’m Marie Bakitas, and I’m a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and also the associate Director of the center for Palliative and Supportive Care.

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Consulting Community Patient-Centered Families 64

GeriPal

MARCH 6, 2025

Michaels Hospital in Toronto, and health justice activist. link] PEACH Good Wishes Program A program that provides meaningful gifts for unhoused individuals who are terminally ill. Michael’s Hospital in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Today we talk with Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician at St.

Healthcare 102

Healthcare IT Community Illness 102

GeriPal

APRIL 6, 2023

On the other hand, all of our guests agree that chaplains are often the most vulnerable to being cut from hospital and health system budgets. Lexy: Yeah, so I can say that I became about, in 2014, I had the opportunity to lead a center at our health system called the Evans Center that focuses on religion, spirituality, and health.

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IT Patient-Centered Families Family 99

GeriPal

APRIL 13, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Social connections impact our health in profound ways, whether it is the support we receive from family and friends in navigating serious illness, the joy from shared social activities, or connecting with our community. But, should we as clinicians care about the social lives of our patients?

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IT Community Patient-Centered Medical 100