Palliative Care News and Research

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Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.

Thyroid journal publishes new ATA guidelines for management of anaplastic thyroid cancer

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a rare form of thyroid tumor, but it is also the most deadly. Newly developed evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term monitoring and follow-up care of patients with this extremely aggressive form of thyroid cancer are published in Thyroid, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

8 Nov 2012

Round-the-clock ICU intensivists could reduce mortality rates, length of stay

Implementing 24-hour intensivists at medical intensive care units could reduce patient mortality rates, and significantly reduce patients' length of stay, indicate study results.

5 Nov 2012

Research roundup: Lowering health costs of the poorest sick; Local variations in health spending

Olmstead County, Minn., which earlier required just restaurants to be smoke-free, enacted a law in 2007 that banned smoking in all workplaces. Researchers reported "a substantial decline in the incidence of MI from 18 months before the smoke-free restaurant law was implemented to 18 months after the comprehensive smoke-free workplace law was implemented 5 years later.

3 Nov 2012

Treatments and outcomes vary for nursing home residents who use Medicare SNF care: Study

A Medicare rule that blocks thousands of nursing home residents from receiving simultaneous reimbursement for hospice and skilled nursing facility care at the end of life may result in those residents receiving more aggressive treatment and hospitalization, according a new analysis.

3 Nov 2012

Treatment rate high at end of life for prostate cancer patients

Approximately one-third of men with castration-resistant prostate cancer receive some form of treatment in the last 3 months of life, show US study results.

1 Nov 2012

Hospice volunteers' satisfaction relies on appreciation, support

The majority of individuals involved with nine Canadian hospice volunteer programs are satisfied with their work, citing the appreciation and gratitude of patients and their families as the most satisfying aspect of volunteering, indicate study results.

31 Oct 2012

$Most refractory status epilepticus patients have poor functional outcome$

Most refractory status epilepticus patients have poor functional outcome

Three-quarters of refractory status epilepticus patients have a poor functional outcome, which is linked to drug-induced coma and severe encephalographic suppression, say US scientists.

30 Oct 2012

Four-point plan to improve palliative care discussions

In an editorial appearing in the October 25 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, medical oncologists at Johns Hopkins and Brigham and Women's hospitals provide a four-point plan for integrating palliative care discussions throughout the treatment of patients with terminal illnesses.

25 Oct 2012

Medication at end of life indicates care quality

Medication given to patients at the end of life varies according to whether they are being cared for in a hospice or hospital, and has the potential to indicate the quality of their care, suggest researchers.

24 Oct 2012

Quitting smoking may improve HRQoL in advanced lung cancer

The health-related quality of life of patients with advanced-stage lung cancer is worsened if they smoke, report UK researchers.

17 Oct 2012

Adults with HIV can benefit from cognitive training exercises

As more effective antiretroviral therapy has evolved over the past 30 years, HIV/AIDS has shifted from an acute to a chronic condition. But as patients live longer, research indicates that they are experiencing cognitive impairments at a higher rate than people without the disease.

17 Oct 2012

Regenstrief, IU to work with 19 Indiana nursing facilities to improve quality of care

A multi-million-dollar award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, will enable Indiana University and Regenstrief Institute clinician-researchers to work with 19 central Indiana nursing facilities to improve the quality of care, reduce hospitalizations and increase access to palliative care for long-stay nursing facility residents.

12 Oct 2012

Recommendations in pediatric palliative care

The future of pediatric and perinatal palliative care should include accepting parents’ need for proximity to the child, combining the strategies of palliative and intensive care physicians, improving healthcare providers’ listening skills, and involving multiple disciplines, recommend researchers.

11 Oct 2012