Comparing the symptom experience of cancer patients and non-cancer patients. Deshields TL, Penalba V, Liu J, Avery J. Support Care Cancer. 2017 Apr;25(4):1103-1109. This study focussed on symptom burden of 301 consecutive patients from a general medical clinic and 558 cancer patients from a tumour registry who completed the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. Results […]
Category: Uncategorized
Shortcuts
Predictors of Complicated Grief and Depression in Bereaved Caregivers: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study. Nielsen MK, Neergaard MA, Jensen AB, et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Mar;53(3):540-550 A prospective survey of 3635 caregivers to terminally ill patients in Denmark was conducted. 2420 were bereaved within six months and of the survey, 2125 (88%) […]
The four weddings and a funeral guide to the updated palliative care currency
by Dr Ollie Minton, Macmillan consultant and honorary senior lecturer in palliative medicine. I can’t quote the line for obvious reasons but as I trawled through the extensive analysis of the proposed currency I channelled Hugh Grant as Charles looking at his alarm clock at the start of the film. The opening iconic scene of […]
Shortcuts
A systematic review of prognostic factors at the end of life for people with a hematological malignancy. Button E, Chan RJ, Chambers S, Butler J, Yates P. BMC Cancer. 2017 Mar 23;17(1):213. This systematic review looked at identifying prognostic factors in the last 3 months of life that are associated with increased risk of […]
News and updates from www.palliativedrugs.com
07/04/2017 Selected items from the News and Latest Additions sections of www.palliativedrugs.com, the world’s leading palliative care website with over 30,000 members from 169 Countries. Hot topics Cochrane review: pharmacological interventions for pruritus in adult palliative care patients In this update to the original review in 2013, the authors concluded that there were was low–moderate […]
The new Respect form- Aretha Franklin and our odd relationship with forms
Dr Ollie Minton, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Maybe I should not listen to BBC Radio 4 as much as I do, although it is always stimulating and often leads to debate. This is especially true of the Today program where the “vexed issue” of DNACPR (Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) was recently discussed. However the […]
Palliative care in space – breaking bad news to a satellite
by Dr Mark Taubert, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff, Wales @DrMarkTaubert What do you do when a piece of debris in space sends out an end of life distress message via Twitter? This particular message read as follows: “Your people predict I will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere early 2017. […]
Menkel’s Kinky Hair versus Dilnott Fairer Care – Journeys through Nuncupation
It’s eponymous my dear Watson! Eponymous adjective 1. (of a person) giving their name to something. “the eponymous hero of the novel” 2. (of a thing) named after a particular person or group. “their eponymous debut LP” Medical students of a certain vintage will have used the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. There was a […]
It’s good to talk and even better to communicate effectively
by Dr Ollie Minton, Macmillan consultant and honorary senior lecturer in palliative medicine I remember the old British Telecom adverts moving from Maureen Lipman’s “ooh he’s got an ology” to the final incarnation of Bob Hoskins “It’s good to talk”. I’m fairly certain after this, the internet took off and the simple phone call was […]
Knowledge translation & impact at the end of life
by Dr Ollie Minton, Macmillan consultant and honorary senior lecturer in palliative medicine 2004 was a long time ago (not quite in a galaxy far, far away), but sufficient time has passed for the highly lauded NICE supportive and palliative care guidance to have been enacted. ( https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/csg4 ) The clearly stated aim was 7 day […]