Hospice News and Research

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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

COVID-19: Guidance to support healthcare staff having difficult conversations about end of life

A Loughborough University academic is providing guidance to clinicians who are likely to be having - and training people who will have - difficult conversations with patients suffering from COVID-19 or those closest to them.

3 Apr 2020

Should you bring mom home from assisted living during the pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

31 Mar 2020

Lessons from the Spanish flu: Strict and early isolation really effective in minimizing disease spread

Large events are canceled, restaurants and non-essential businesses are closed, and in many states, residents have been asked to shelter in place, all to limit the spread and impact of the COVID-19 virus.

27 Mar 2020

Are vital home health workers now a safety threat?

As a hospice nurse in Seattle, Diane Speer said giving out hugs to patients and family members was a routine part of home visits.

25 Mar 2020

CAR macrophages can be used to effectively fight solid tumors

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has been a game-changer for blood cancers but has faced challenges in targeting solid tumors.

23 Mar 2020

Hospices struggle to provide bereavement support to children before and after parental death

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Surrey and Princess Alice Hospice investigated the bereavement support provided to children before and after a parent's death.

9 Mar 2020

Brain imaging may help predict when liquid biopsy will benefit individual glioblastoma patients

Tracking brain cancer with a blood test instead of a surgical biopsy may greatly improve quality of life for glioblastoma (GBM) patients and provide critical information for their care, but it is not feasible in all cases.

27 Feb 2020

Biomarkers in blood samples can predict clinical response to immunotherapy in metastatic NSCLC

Non-small cell lung cancer patients with higher measures of tumor mutations that show up in a blood test generally have a better clinical response to PD-1-based immunotherapy treatments than patients with a lower measure of mutations.

26 Feb 2020

TMS shows promise in treating broader range of neurological conditions

Transcranial magnetic stimulatio has shown significant efficacy in treating major depressive and obsessive compulsive disorders.

24 Feb 2020

Study uses machine learning to identify personalized brain networks in kids

Machine learning is helping Penn Medicine researchers identify the size and shape of brain networks in individual children, which may be useful for understanding psychiatric disorders.

19 Feb 2020

Loyola Medicine expert detects and treats abdominal aortic aneurysm

When 64-year-old Robert Johnson of Highland, Indiana thought he had kidney stones, he visited his primary care physician who couldn't see anything of concern. He pushed, saying "I'm not making up this pain. It's waking me up every night."

16 Feb 2020