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 […]
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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 […]
Kate Granger
by Dr Mark Taubert, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Velindre Cancer Centre, Cardiff On July 23, 2016, Dr. Kate Granger died at St Gemma’s Hospice. Goodbye Kate. Some words. Where can we live, but days? A message you sent me in October 2013 read, “I have high expectations of myself & what I can achieve – I […]
Letter to Bowie read at Hay Festival by Benedict Cumberbatch
A letter written by Dr. Mark Taubert after David Bowie’ s death in January and originally published on our BMJ SPCare blog, was read out by the actor Benedict Cumerbatch at Hay Literary Festival on Saturday the 28th May 2016. Cumberbatch performed the reading as part of an event called Letters Live, organized by Shaun […]
The Digital Legacy Conference 2016
By Sandy Weatherburn, Founder & Director at Social Embers Digital estate management This weekend I attended the Digital Legacy Conference in Hackney, London, which was held at St Joseph’s Hospice. The conference was organised by The Digital Legacy Association (DLA) to raise awareness of issues surrounding death and dying that are becoming increasingly important in […]
A thank you letter to David Bowie from a palliative care doctor
By Dr Mark Taubert, Palliative Care Consultant at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff, UK @DrMarkTaubert Dear David, Oh no, don’t say it’s true – whilst realization of your death was sinking in during those grey, cold January days of 2016, many of us went on with our day jobs. At the beginning of that week […]