Web-based videoconferencing for rural palliative care consultation with elderly patients at home.

Purpose: Providing specialized palliative care support to elderly patients in rural areas can be challenging. The purpose of this study was to gain a preliminary understanding of the experience of using mobile web-based videoconferencing (WBVC) for conducting in-home palliative care consults with elderly rural patients with life-limiting illness.

Methods: This was a descriptive, exploratory, proof-of-concept study with a convenience sample of 10 WBVC visits.

Development of a rural palliative care program in the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services.

Specialized rural models of palliative care are greatly needed to address the challenges rural communities face in providing palliative care services and to ensure that their unique strengths and needs are considered. In late 2005, a Rural Palliative Care Program was developed to support primary care providers in delivering palliative care to patients in rural communities outside of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The program was grounded in the needs of individual communities, incorporated integral roles for local champions, and adopted pre-existing, accepted rural structures and processes.