Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Professor Scott Murray (Primary Palliative Care Research Group, Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK).   We are delighted with this special edition, and that Palliative Medicine has turned its focus on this important topic. Primary Palliative Care, delivering palliative care by trained primary care professionals can help meet the outstanding challenge o...

Primary Palliative Care - onwards and upwards!

This episode features Richard Keagan-Bull (Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education, School of Nursing, Allied and Public Health, Kingston University London, London, UK).   What is already known about the topic? Deaths of people with intellectual disabilities are often unanticipated, unplanned for and poorly managed. Service providers in residential settings are at the forefront of su...

This episode features Sheryn Tan (University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia) and Dr Stephen Bacchi (Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia; Lyell McEwin Hospital, Elizabeth Vale, SA, Australia)   What is already known about the topic? In palliative care patients for whom there is a need for non-oral antiseizure medications, and a preference to avoid intravenous access, options are...

This episode features Dr Maria Arantzamendit, (Universidad de Navarra, Institute for Culture and Society-ATLANTES Global Observatory of Palliative Care, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain. IdISNA-Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra. Medicina PaliativaK).   What is already known about the topic? Palliative care professionals use coping strategies to deal with the emotional challenges of their wor...

This episode features Hannah Scott, (King's College London, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Palliative Care, Cicely Saunders Institute, London, UK)   What is already known about the topic? Person-centred outcome measures have been shown to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes in adult palliative care when successfully implemented into routine care. Several factors...

This episode features Hannah Scott, (King's College London, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Palliative Care, Cicely Saunders Institute, London, UK)   What is already known about the topic? Person-centred outcome measures have been shown to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes in adult palliative care when successfully implemented into routine care. Several factors...

This episode features Dr Fiona Kenney and Koby Anderson, (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada)   What is already known about the topic? Previous research demonstrates a high prevalence of severe grief symptoms up to a year post-death of a loved one among those who experienced bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic. No previous stu...

This episode features Sue-Ling Chang, (CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Oncology Division, Québec City, QC, Canada)   What is already known about the topic? There is a growing interest in psilocybin-assisted therapy worldwide, particularly to treat existential distress at the end of life.   What this paper adds? In this study, we show that the social acceptability of psilocybin-assi...

This episode features Dr Carlos Seiça Cardoso (Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal CINTESIS@RISE, MEDCIDS, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal)   What is already known about the topic? The burden of chronic, progressive, incurable and life-threatening illness is increasing, highlighting the need to integrate palliative care into patients' care...

This episode features Ellis Slotman (Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL), Utrecht, the Netherlands)   What is already known about the topic? Potentially inappropriate end-of-life care in patients with cancer is still common. The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to affect cancer diagnosis and treatment, but evidence on how the pandemic has affected end-of-life care is limited.    W...

This episode features Dr Vanessa Abrahamson, (Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent, Kent, UK ).   What is already known about the topic? Increasingly, people at end-of-life want to die at home but this relies heavily on family carers to support the patient. Many carers struggle with the practical and emotional burden of caring for a loved one at home. Services providing hospice c...

This episode features Dr Nivedita Ashok, (University College London, London, UK ).   What is already known about the topic? Individuals with intellectual disability or serious mental illness have high rates of mortality due to physical comorbidities. These populations have specific needs that should be met to provide optimum palliative care and maintain optimum mental healthcare at the end-of-life...

This episode features Caitlin Spooner (Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, University College London, London, UK).   What is already known about the topic? - Currently, there is no gold standard for evaluating how different methods of prognosticating in advanced cancer impact on patient care. - Prognostic models are principally evaluated by their statistical performance, determining t...

This episode features Dr Amara Nwosu (Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK; and Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool, Liverpool, UK). The podcast is an overview of a published editorial on telehealth in palliative care. Dr Nwosu highlights the unrealised potential of palliative care telehealth, and discusses the...

Title "Hospital-service use in the last year of life by patients aged ⩾ 60 years who died of heart failure or cardiomyopathy: A retrospective linked data study" Description This episode features Dr Gursharan K Singh (Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia). What is already known about the topic? - Evidence based...

This episode features Hannah May Scott (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Palliative Care, Cicely Saunders Institute, King's College London, London, UK).   What is already known about the topic? - Although spiritual concerns are recognised as a core component of palliative care for children, there is a paucity of primary data. - Self-report data from children is rare, and exist...

This episode features Dr Jenny Lau (Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Palliative Care, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada) and Dr. Daniel Buchman (Everyday Ethics Lab, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, T...

This episode features Dr Rachael Moss (Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK). What is already known about the topic: - The degree to which individuals access and use palliative and end-of-life care services varies across communities and countries.   What this paper adds: - This study found that the South Asian community (in Bradford, UK...

This episode features Isabel Vandenbogaerde (End-of-life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium). What is already known about the topic: Involvement of family carers in advance care planning conversations is crucial for end-of-life decision-making. Family carers are willing to engage in advance care planning conversations, but experience barriers i...

This episode features Dr Joyce Chung and Weilin Chen (School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China). What is already known about the topic: End-of-life communication can improve patients' quality of life, ease the bereavement experience, raise care satisfaction and reduce the utilisation of aggressive and expensive medical care. Healthcare profes...

This episode features Suzanne Smith (Master of Palliative Care student, Flinders University, Australia; Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service, Australia), Dr Megan Doherty (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada; Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada) and Dr Mostofa Kamal Chowdhury  (BangabandhuSheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh). What is already known about th...

This episode features Dr Richard Green (University of Surrey, Guildford, UK). Multimorbidity is increasing substantially worldwide, is associated with greater use of healthcare services, lower quality and quantity of life, and rises with age. Older people with multimorbidity are expected to become the main recipients of palliative care in the coming decades; however, there is limited evidence of t...

This episode features Dr Andrew Page (Academic Unit of Palliative Care, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK). Cancer pain is common, extremely debilitating, and undertreated worldwide. We do not know if non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aka NSAIDs or "anti-inflammatories") are effective in managing cancer pain of any type. To further scientific understanding, UK...

This episode features Dr James Downar (University of Ottawa, Canada). Early studies in the COVID-19 pandemic have suggested a high prevalence of severe grief symptoms, although most have used convenience or survey sampling methods which may bias the results, and most have assessed symptoms before pathological grief can be diagnosed (