Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Pain Medicine: Results of a National Palliative Physician Survey.

Context: Pain is a prevalent symptom in patients with serious illness and often requires interventional approaches for adequate treatment. Little is known about referral patterns and collaborative attitudes of palliative physicians regarding pain management specialists.

Objectives: To evaluate referral rates, co-management strategies, and beliefs of palliative physicians about the value of Pain Medicine specialists in patients with serious illness.

Learning to collaborate with medical interpreters in health professions education: A systematic review of training programs.

Background: Working effectively with medical interpreters is an increasingly valuable skill for clinicians to provide high-quality medical care. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of existing training programs that teach optimal collaboration practices between clinicians and interpreters during patient encounters.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and Cochrane Central for studies published from 1945 through June 21, 2022.

Perceptions of Hematology Among Palliative Care Physicians: Results of a Nationwide Survey.

Context: Palliative care integration for patients with hematologic diseases has lagged behind solid-organ malignancies. Previous work has characterized hematologist perspectives, but less is known about palliative care physician views of this phenomenon.

Objectives: To examine palliative care physician attitudes and beliefs regarding hematologic diseases, patient care, and collaboration.

The Premise and Development of CHECK IN-Check-In for Exchange of Clinical and Key Information to Enhance Palliative Care Discussions for Patients With Limited English Proficiency.

Communication regarding serious illness is challenging in most circumstances. Patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) have unique language and cultural needs that often require collaboration with a trained medical interpreter, especially when the clinical encounter involves serious illness decision making or elucidation of patient goals, preferences, and values. Although there is mounting evidence to support interpreter/clinician huddles before a serious illness communication encounter, no current initiatives exist to operationalize this evidence.

Palliative sedation therapy for terminal movement disorders.

Palliative sedation therapy (PST) can be a challenging area of palliative medicine because of the complex ethical considerations involved. PST is a medical therapy used for refractory symptoms in terminally ill patients and is often considered ethically justified due to the principle of double effect. Even in cases where PST is clearly indicated such as refractory cancer pain, there is potential for moral distress among clinicians.

Early post-transplantation factors predict survival outcomes in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelofibrosis.

Factors predicting allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) outcomes in myelofibrosis in the early post-HCT period have not been defined thus far. We attempt to study such factors that can help identify patients at a higher risk of relapse or death. This retrospective study included 79 patients who underwent first HCT for myelofibrosis at three centers between 2005 and 2016.

The role of geriatric palliative care in hospitalized older adults.

Take-Away Points:1. Geriatric palliative care requires integrating the disciplines of hospital medicine and palliative care in pursuit of delivering comprehensive, whole-person care to aging patients with serious illnesses.2.

End-of-Life Care for Seriously Ill International Patients at a Global Destination Medical Center.

Objective: To characterize the end-of-life care of all international patients who died at a global destination medical center from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2015.

Patients And Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all adult international patients who died at a global destination medical center from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2015.

Results: Eighty-two international patients from 25 countries and 5 continents died during the study period (median age, 59.

Comparison of reduced intensity conditioning regimens used in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for myelofibrosis.

The aim of this study is to compare clinical outcomes of patients who underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantation (HCT) for myelofibrosis with reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) using either Busulfan Fludarabine (BuFlu), Fludarabine Bis-chlorethyl-nitroso-urea/ carmustine Melphalan (FBM) or Fludarabine Melphalan (FluMel) regimens. Sixty-one patients were identified who underwent HCT with one of these RIC regimens. Overall survival (OS) was not different in the 3 groups.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant overcomes the adverse survival effect of very high risk and unfavorable karyotype in myelofibrosis.

The prognostic importance of genetic information in primary myelofibrosis (PMF) was recently highlighted in a study of over 1000 cytogenetically-annotated patients; 5-year survival rates were 8% for very high risk (VHR), 27% "unfavorable" and 45% "favorable" karyotype. The current study addresses the practice-relevant question of whether or not allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) can overcome the detrimental survival effect of VHR or unfavorable karyotype. The study included 67 patients with PMF or secondary MF who received HCT at the Mayo Clinic and in whom pretransplant cytogenetic information was available.

Providing Appropriate End-of-Life Care to Religious and Ethnic Minorities.

There is overwhelming evidence that racial and ethnic minorities face multiple health care disparities. Recognizing and addressing cultural and religious/spiritual (RS) values is a critical aspect of providing goal-concordant care for patients facing a serious illness, especially at the end of life. Failure to address a patient's cultural and RS needs can lead to diminished quality of care and worse health outcomes.

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus colonization and bloodstream infection: prevalence, risk factors, and the impact on early outcomes after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Screening for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) is performed at many transplant centers, but data on the impact of VRE colonization and bloodstream infection (BSI) on hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) outcomes remain conflicting.

Methods: Consecutive adults with acute myeloid leukemia who underwent allogeneic HCT between 2004 and 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were screened by perirectal PCR swabs targeting vanA and vanB twice weekly while inpatient.

Fludarabine-Busulfan Reduced-Intensity Conditioning in Comparison with Fludarabine-Melphalan Is Associated with Increased Relapse Risk In Spite of Pharmacokinetic Dosing.

Fludarabine with busulfan (FB) and fludarabine with melphalan (FM) are commonly used reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens. Pharmacokinetic dosing of busulfan (Bu) is frequently done for myeloablative conditioning, but evidence for its use is limited in RIC transplants. We compared transplant outcomes of FB versus FM using i.