This episode features Suning Mao (State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Center for Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China) What is already known about the topic? Home-based palliative care has grown in popularity, but challenges in coordina…

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 profess…

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…

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 pref…

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…

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 successfull…

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 bereaveme…

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 th…

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 t…

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 pandemi…

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 …

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 mainta…

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…

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…

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…

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. - S…

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 Eth…

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…

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…

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 aggres…

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, D…

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 comin…

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…

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 (…

This episode features Dr Sofia Morberg Jämterud (Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden) and Anna Sandgren (Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden). Serious illness conversations promote patients’ possibility of receiving care that is in accordance with their wishes and priorities. Identifying patients for serious illness conversations remains difficu…

This episode features George Muishout (Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies, Amsterdam School for Historical Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). To Muslims it is important that medical decisions are in accordance with Islamic values. In life-threatening illness, Muslims ask imams for religious adv…

This episode features researchers from the the University of Cologne (Germany) from the Faculty of Human Sciences and Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School GROW – Gerontological Research on Well-being, and also the Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Department of Palliative Medicine. The researchers are Helena Kukla, Angélique Herrler, Dr …

This episode features Professor Scott Murray (Primary Palliative Care Research Group, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). People living at home with advanced progressive illness require well-coordinated services at all times of the day and night. Early identification for generalist palliative care support and care planning in the community can …

This episode features Professor Raymond Voltz, Kathleen Boström and Dr Kerstin Kremeike (Department of Palliative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Patients in palliative care frequently express a desire to die that rarely leads to a request for medical aid in dying. Fearing to cause har…

This episode features Si Qi Yoong (National University of Singapore, Singapore). Death doula is a relatively new role found in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Death doulas provide support to the dying and their families. There is uncertainty about its roles, scope of practice, regulation and position within the healthcare s…

The EAPC published recommendations on standards and norms in palliative care for Europe in 2009. The Delphi technique is a well recognised way to elicit the views of stakeholders and obtain consensus. There are a diversity of international and national definitions and concepts in palliative care which makes comparison between countries and delivery…

This episode features Dr Diana Ferreira (Research Fellow at University of Wollongong, Australia). Breathlessness is frequently experienced in people with advanced cancer especially in the last days or weeks of life. Although cross-sectional studies have been done, longitudinal data on changes in maximum inspiratory pressure reflecting muscle streng…

This episode features Professor Scott Murray (Primary Palliative Care Research Group, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). People living at home with advanced progressive illness require well-coordinated services at all times of the day and night. Early identification for generalist palliative care support and care planning in the community can …

This episode features Dr Catherine Auriemma (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania). Prior surveys and limited qualitative work have identified several health states that patients value as equal to or worse than death. The broad range of health states consider equal to or worse than death and the shared att…

This episode features Madeleine Juhrmann (Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. HammondCare Centre for Learning and Research in Palliative Care, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, NSW, Australia). Global demand for palliative care is increasing and the reliance on exclusively specialist hospital-based care is becoming …

This episode features Prof. María Arantzamendi (Institute for Culture and Society, ATLANTES, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain). Coping is essential to manage the challenges that palliative care professionals face in their daily clinical work and most well-known explanations focus on emotion or problem-based coping. Many of the studi…

This episode features Dr Eloise Radcliffe (University of Southampton, Southampton, UK) and Aysha Khan (The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK) People living with cancer that is treatable but not curable have complex needs, often managing their health and wellbeing at home, supported by those close to them. People living with cancer that …

This episode features Jennifer Baxley Lee (Ulster University, Institute of Nursing and Health Sciences Research, Northern Ireland, UK University of Florida, Center for Arts in Medicine, College of the Arts, Florida, USA). An expanding body of evidence demonstrates the positive impacts of the arts on health and well-being. No synthesis currently exi…

This episode features Dr Nicola White (Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK), Dr Christina Gerlach (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany), Dr Bert Leysen (Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College Lond…

This episode features Dr Diah Martina (Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands). Asian healthcare professionals hold that patients’ family play a central role in advance care planning and rarely engage patients in it. Despite the wide range of studies on advance ca…

This episode features Dr Ben Bowers (Primary Care Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK). The prescribing of injectable anticipatory medications to provide symptom relief in the last days of life is recommended and widespread practice in a number of counties. There is limited research concerning …

This episode features Dr Markus Krause (Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany) and Dr Antje Freytag (Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany). Palliative homecare is an important component of palliative care, and it has a positive impact on the q…

This episode features Jamilla Akhter Hussain (Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School, Hull, UK), Jonathan Koffman (Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, London, UK) and Sabrina Bajwah (Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, …

This episode features Dr Eleanor Wilson (Nottingham Centre for the Advancement of Research in End of Life Care, School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK) Managing medications at home can be a complex task involving ordering, collecting, organising, storing and taking medications corr…

This episode features Florence Reedy (Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, UK). Chronic breathlessness is a prevalent symptom amongst patients with advanced medical conditions. In combination with disease-modifying therapies and non-pharmacological interventions, regular low dose opioids may s…

This episode features Baby Foo (School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia) and Dr Michele Wiese (School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia). With advancing age and the experience of life-limiting illness, people with intellectual disability need equitable access to effective palliative car…

This episode features Daisy McInnerney (Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, Division of Psychiatry, UCL, London, UK). Emotional disclosure -based interventions can improve psychological and physical wellbeing in general populations. A range of emotional disclosure-based interventions exist, but evidence of their efficacy in palliative …