The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has developed recommendations for integrating health equity into future clinical practice guidelines for palliative care. The recommendations include proliferating community partnerships to reach underserved populations, providing guideline development panelists with training on implicit bias and ensuring that future revisions include health equity measures. “The ASCO clinical practice guidelines […]

Multidisciplinary palliative care offers clear benefits to patients with cardiovascular disease, particularly when it comes to medication management and goals-of-care conversations. Palliative care with effective medication management, shared decision making and symptom management can help improve quality of life for heart disease patients, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) — […]

Patients with some respiratory conditions often do not receive outpatient palliative care and have relatively higher rates of intensive care admissions than those with other illnesses. This includes patients with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a condition called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to a recent study published in the pulmonology journal […]

For many medical providers across the country, palliative care services can be an unknown option for several patients and their families. A few reasons for that are a lack of awareness surrounding the benefits of palliative care, as well as the misconceptions about what this type of care offers for patients. As such, the model […]

A growing number of cervical cancer patients could benefit from receiving palliative care, but delivery, access and outcomes vary vastly across the globe. This is according to a recent statistical analysis that scoured annual data across nearly 3,000 research publications worldwide on palliative care delivery trends among these patients between 2000 and 2023. The volume […]

A range of emerging payment model demonstrations are integrating principles traditionally associated with “palliative care” into their structures, but without using that term. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s (CMMI) has unveiled a series of models that incorporate elements designed to provide patient-centered care to improve seriously ill patients’ quality of life. Examples include […]

The 2024 update to the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) clinical practice guidelines place renewed emphasis on palliative care. The guidelines are updated periodically by a multidisciplinary team, including a patient representative and experts in medical and radiation oncology, hematology and palliative care. For the 2024 revisions, this panel reviewed 52 randomized controlled trials […]

Providence Hospice-Community Healthcare of Texas has established a new palliative care clinic at Limestone Medical Center in its home state. The clinic officially opened on Aug. 15 with a ceremony featuring local government officials, health care professionals and other dignitaries. The clinic is designed to provide care to support the quality of life of seriously […]

Palliative care providers’ largest referral hurdles have been long-rooted in misunderstandings about their services. Breaking down referral barriers to improve patient access can take vigilant education and outreach efforts. Among the most common misconceptions about palliative care is that these services are often conflated with hospice as support received at the end of a person’s […]

Integrating pharmacists who specialize in palliative care can improve the quality of cancer care, research has found. Palliative pharmacists bring an additional layer of knowledge and training to bear for seriously ill patients, according to an analysis published in Pharmacy Times. A number of research papers and stakeholders have advocated for the inclusion of these […]