Primary Palliative Care in Huntington's Disease.

Background: Palliative care practices, including communication about patient-centered goals of care and advance care planning (ACP), have the potential to enhance care throughout the course of Huntington's disease (HD) and related disorders. The goal of our project was to develop a pilot program that integrates primary palliative care practices with interdisciplinary care for HD.

Objectives: (1) To train HD team members to facilitate goals of care and ACP conversations at all stages of HD; (2) To create materials for care planning in HD focused on patient-centered goals of care and health-related quality of life; and (3) To modify clinic workflow to include goals of care and ACP discussions.

End-of-life and hospice care for neurologic illness.

Systems for end of life care around the world vary in availability, structure, and funding. When available, most end of life care is in the hospice model with an interdisciplinary team approach to care of people who are expected to die within months and whose primary goal is to maximize quality of life. Symptom management near the end of life is guided by prognosis and individual priorities.

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Seizures at the End of Life.

Seizures are physically burdensome and emotionally distressing for patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians. Patients with neurological diseases are at increased risk of having complex, difficult-to-control seizures at the end of life. Palliative care (PC) clinicians asked to provide management of these seizures may not be familiar or comfortable with more complex seizures or epilepsy.

Integrating palliative care into the outpatient, private practice oncology setting.

Context: Quality care for patients with cancer is a national priority-for those with noncurable cancer, the stakes are even higher. Strategies to promote integration of palliative care into oncology practice may enhance quality. We have developed a model in which palliative care services are integrated into the private, office-based oncology practice setting.

Supportive management of patients with brain tumors.

Management issues for patients with brain tumors include peritumoral edema, symptomatic seizures, venous thromboembolism, headache, pain, fatigue and neuropsychological complaints. Vasogenic edema is typically ameliorated with the lowest dose possible of corticosteroid. Seizures are managed with attention to additional or complicated side effects of antiepileptic drugs and their interactions with chemotherapy, and primary prevention with antiepileptic medications is not recommended.

Reducing medication errors: a regional approach for hospitals.

Since the Institute of Medicine's report, To Err Is Human, and the subsequent publication, Crossing the Quality Chasm, the subject of reducing medical errors has gained considerable attention from patients, healthcare providers, employers and government organisations in the US. Most nonoperative errors are related to medications. Medication errors lead not only to negative repercussions subjectively experienced by both the patient and the healthcare staff, but also to additional expenditures due to complications.