Latest Blog Posts for GeriPal

• Medicine In Translation
  on Feb 12, 2010 in culture miscommunication interpreters doctor patient doctor-patient relationship translation medicine cancer
  “But what will you be doing to cure my disease?” the interpreter said, relaying the words of our patient. Was there an error in translation? Perhaps there weren’t clear equivalents of “cancer” and “metastatic” in Mandarin? Perhaps the...
• Feeding Tubes in Advanced Dementia: It's all About Location
  on Feb 10, 2010 in End-Of-Life Care Dementia nursing home
  Feeding tubes are often placed in the hospital setting for patients with advanced dementia, even though there is pretty much a lack of evidence for their effectiveness in improving survival, preventing aspiration pneumonias, or helping reso...
• The Cultural Distance Between Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine
  on Feb 4, 2010 in Geriatrics Palliative Care
  I just read Chris Feudtner's brief piece, "The Breadth of Hopes," in the New England Journal.  Among other things, the article helps me articulate a difference between care at the end of life (last years, months, days) for many older people and...
• Social Media in Palliative Care Communities: A New Workshop at the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly
  on Feb 3, 2010 in blogs Hospice Palliative Care
  A new workshop on the usage of online social media has been added to the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly this March. The session, titled "Social Media in Palliative Care Communities: Developing and Maintaining your Online Presence", will be led by a panel...
• Persistent Vegetative State: An apt description for the media coverage of PVS
  on Feb 3, 2010 in Prognosis Palliative Care
  The New England Journal of Medicine released a study today revealing some awareness in a minority of patients diagnosed with Persistent Vegetative State (PVS). Researchers used functional MRI tests on 54 patients with PVS or minimally conscious state...
• What a nursing assistant will tell us...if we ask
  on Jan 29, 2010 in Geriatrics education Palliative Care
  A friend recently forwarded me an update to a story first reported in the Washington Post in May 2009 about a home care nursing assistant, Marilyn Daniel. (Here’s the update). Using quotes and photographs, the author describes a typical day of visi...
• Mammograms in Women with Dementia: What's the Problem?
  on Jan 28, 2010 in mammography Prognosis elders Geriatrics primary care Newsweek Dementia caregivers Screening
  A study in the American Journal of Public Health examining mammogram use in older persons found that 18% of women with severe cognitive impairment had received a screening mammogram in the prior 2 years. These women had an average life expectancy of...
• Morphine Sulfate oral solution is now FDA approved
  on Jan 27, 2010 in Pain blogs
  Morphine sulfate oral solution is now FDA approved thanks to a concerted effort by many in the hospice and palliative care community. To give a little history, in March the FDA issued warning letters to nine companies telling them to stop manufacturi...
• How do you treat your elderly clinic patients for chronic pain?
  on Jan 26, 2010 in elders Pain primary care
  As noted on the Pallimed blog, a study published last week in Annals of Internal Medicine reports on adverse events associated with the prescription of opiates for chronic non-cancer pain. In brief: they studied 9940 HMO patients (mean age 54) who r...
• "Do not punctuate the end of your life with a senseless act of brutality!"
  on Jan 21, 2010 in Advance Care Planning Communication CPR
  Words have power. Language has power. The words we use may comfort or shock, allay or provoke, sooth or batter. Words often imply layers of meaning that are not explicitly articulated, yet rest beneath the surface: “I worry that time is sho...

{pvComments::user_name}

{pvComments::date}

Delete 

{pvComments::comment}

Post a Comment