Hospice News and Research

RSS

Oncologists highlight the need for more palliative care training

Oncologists who practice and teach at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are calling on medical oncology training programs to invest substantially more time educating physicians about palliative care and how to talk to patients about "bad news."

28 May 2020

My mother died of the coronavirus. It’s time she was counted.

We recently received the death certificate for my mother, who died May 4 in an assisted living facility near New York City. "Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" was the primary cause. And the secondary — no surprise — was "suspected COVID-19."

27 May 2020

Researchers are taking inventory of drugs used to treat COVID-19

With doctors and researchers around the world searching for effective treatments for COVID-19, many drugs approved to treat other diseases are being used in hopes that they'll be effective against the virus, a use that's known as "off-label."

27 May 2020

Study highlights the benefits of palliative care for heart failure patients

Palliative care is valuable for heart failure patients, and, for those who are hospitalized, it can significantly lower the risk of repeated hospital admissions and the need for invasive procedures such as mechanical ventilation and defibrillator implantation, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access journal of the American Heart Association.

27 May 2020

Bringing ‘Poogie’ home: Hospice in the time of COVID-19

After she landed in the hospital with a broken hip, Parkinson’s disease and the coronavirus, 84-year-old Dorothy “Poogie” Wyatt Shields made a request of her children: “Bring me home.”

26 May 2020

Does HIV infection increase the severity of COVID-19?

A new study by researchers at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 reports that being infected with HIV at the time of acquiring COVID-19 does not significantly increase the severity of illness or the risk of complications.

13 May 2020

Keeping the COVID plague at bay: How California is protecting older veterans

Dr. Vito Imbasciani has been at war with viruses since he was 5. Growing up near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, he contracted polio in 1952 and couldn't walk for two months. In medical school in Vermont 30 years later, he witnessed AIDS steal the lives of otherwise healthy gay men.

11 May 2020

New guidelines needed to manage stroke patients during COVID-19, says neurologist

Broad modifications to current standards for treating acute stroke patients during the COVID-19 pandemic may be needed to preserve health care resources, limit disease spread and ensure optimal care, according to a Loyola Medicine neurologist.

8 May 2020

Palliative care helped family face ‘the awful, awful truth’

Seattle mourned the news: Elizabeth and Robert Mar died of COVID-19 within a day of each other. They would have celebrated 50 years of marriage in August.

5 May 2020

Activation of estrogen receptor can impede growth of pancreatic cancer cells

Activating the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor - a receptor found on the surface of many normal and cancer tissues - has been shown to stop pancreatic cancer from growing, but may also make tumors more visible to the immune system and thus more susceptible to modern immunotherapy.

4 May 2020

As COVID-19 lurks, families are locked out of nursing homes. Is it safe inside?

Families are beset by fear and anxiety as COVID-19 makes inroads at nursing homes across the country, threatening the lives of vulnerable older adults.

4 May 2020

AHA statements recommend best practice scenario to care for patients with heart failure

Treatment for heart failure should take into consideration a patient's social determinants of health - their overall living environment, socio-economic status, as well as the needs of unpaid family caregivers, according to two new scientific statements from the American Heart Association, published simultaneously today in the Association's flagship journal Circulation.

30 Apr 2020

Trial to evaluate how blood pressure medications affect outcomes among COVID-19 patients

A new trial led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will evaluate whether the use of medications to treat high blood pressure affect outcomes among patients who are prescribed the medication and hospitalized with COVID-19.

16 Apr 2020

Blood test may aid in early detection of pancreatic cancer

A blood test may be able to detect the most common form of pancreatic cancer while it is still in its early stages while also helping doctors accurately stage a patient's disease and guide them to the appropriate treatment.

16 Apr 2020

Quantifying the risk among health care providers who intubate COVID-19 patients

A team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania launched the United States component of a global registry that aims to help protect health care providers who intubate patients with COVID-19 and better quantify their risk of developing the disease.

9 Apr 2020

Penn-led trial to evaluate the effectiveness of HCQ in combating COVID-19 pandemic

A new trial led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will evaluate whether the drug hydroxychloroquine can benefit people infected with COVID-19, as well as whether taking the drug preventatively may help people avoid infection altogether.

6 Apr 2020