RSSCategory: Palliative Care

Beginning end-of-life care at the dinner table

Beginning end-of-life care at the dinner table

Michael Hebb wants Americans to engage in a conversation about how they want to die, a conversation that could change the high cost of caring for the terminally ill and grant patients their ultimate requests.

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April 19, 2013 | By | Reply More
How mom’s death changed my thinking about end-of-life care

How mom’s death changed my thinking about end-of-life care

Veteran health reporter Charles Ornstein writes about how his mother’s death has changed how he thinks about end-of-life care.

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February 28, 2013 | By | Reply More
Aggressive care still the norm for dying seniors

Aggressive care still the norm for dying seniors

“The good news is that we are referring to hospice. The bad news is we’re referring to hospice in the last hours of life.”

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February 5, 2013 | By | 4 Replies More
Washington state moves to address epidemic of prescription painkiller overdose deaths – BMJ

Washington state moves to address epidemic of prescription painkiller overdose deaths – BMJ

A feature article on efforts in Washington state to address the epidemic of prescription painkiller overdose deaths by LocalHealthGuide editor Michael McCarthy appears this week in the BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Society.

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December 14, 2012 | By | Reply More
End-of-life discussions lead to less aggressive care, more use of hospice

End-of-life discussions lead to less aggressive care, more use of hospice

Patients who had end-of-life care discussions early were much less likely to receive aggressive care and more likely to receive hospice care.

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November 14, 2012 | By | Reply More
Good Reads on the Web: From womb to tomb and other stories.

Good Reads on the Web: From womb to tomb and other stories.

Long weekend reading: How long should we live? Surgery in the womb. And why are medical students learning the names of their cadavers? — and other best-of-the-web stories selected by KHN’s Shefali S. Kulkarni

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May 26, 2012 | By | Reply More
U.S. launches plan to prevent Alzheimer’s and improve care

U.S. launches plan to prevent Alzheimer’s and improve care

The Obama administration is moving forward with an ambitious agenda to improve the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and unlock a method to prevent it by 2025. The plan also sets up a wide-ranging effort to improve the care that Alzheimer’s patients receive and support families.

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May 16, 2012 | By | Reply More
American Pain Foundation shuts down as senators launch investigation of prescription narcotics

American Pain Foundation shuts down as senators launch investigation of prescription narcotics

The group received 90 percent of its $5 million in funding in 2010 from the drug and medical-device industry, and its guides for patients, journalists and policymakers had played down the risks associated with opioid painkillers while exaggerating the benefits.

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May 12, 2012 | By | Reply More
Doctors prescribed lethal prescriptions for 103 last year under state’s Death With Dignity Act

Doctors prescribed lethal prescriptions for 103 last year under state’s Death With Dignity Act

Of the 103 who received prescriptions last year, 94 are known to have died. Seventy of these died after taking the medication. Nineteen died without taking the medication. In five deaths, it is not known whether or not they took the medication.

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May 2, 2012 | By | Reply More
Higher cost of cancer care in the U.S. may be ‘worth it’ — study

Higher cost of cancer care in the U.S. may be ‘worth it’ — study

Higher U.S. spending for cancer care pays off in almost two years of additional life for American cancer patients on average compared to their European counterparts — a value that offsets our higher costs.

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April 10, 2012 | By | Reply More
Are seniors being over treated?

Are seniors being over treated?

You can be healthy well beyond 60, but you’ll be different than you were when you were 20. You’ll have different posture, wrinkles and a lot of other changes that are less obvious but age appropriate. We have to be very, very careful about calling any difference from when we were younger an illness or a disease. And we have to be even more careful about telling people that we have things we can do to “fix” these differences, but this happens all the time. That’s the medicalization of aging.

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February 26, 2012 | By | Reply More
Viewpoint: Exploring effective pain relief options

Viewpoint: Exploring effective pain relief options

The Seattle Times series on methadone deaths highlights the drawbacks of drug treatment for pain and the need to explore alternative approaches, writes Bill Scott.

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December 23, 2011 | By | Reply More
State to issue warning on opioid risks — Seattle Times

State to issue warning on opioid risks — Seattle Times

Following an series of articles in the Seattle Times drawing attention to the high death rate among patients taking methadone. Washington state will issue a public health advisory that singles out the unique risks of methadone, a commonly prescribed pain medicine that’s linked to the most accidental overdose deaths.

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December 22, 2011 | By | Reply More
How doctors die, Newt’s health care heresies and other top stories of the week

How doctors die, Newt’s health care heresies and other top stories of the week

How doctors die (Hint: Not like the rest of us). Can vaccines end cancer? Newt Gingrich’s health-care heresies. Should your doctor take money from drug companies? — This week’s top stories.

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December 18, 2011 | By | Reply More
Seattle Times investigates Washington state’s methadone policy

Seattle Times investigates Washington state’s methadone policy

The Seattle Times has launched an investigative series on Washington state’s policy towards the use of the pain killer methadone for the treatment of chronic pain. The paper argues the drug is dangerously unpredictable and responsible for the deaths of hundreds, particularly among the poor.

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December 12, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More