Publications by authors named "Ramona Rhodes"
Importance: Numerous studies show that early palliative care improves quality of life and other key outcomes in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers, although most lack access to this evidence-based model of care.
Objective: To evaluate whether delivering early palliative care via secure video vs in-person visits has an equivalent effect on quality of life in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Design, Setting, And Participants: Randomized, multisite, comparative effectiveness trial from June 14, 2018, to May 4, 2023, at 22 US cancer centers among 1250 patients within 12 weeks of diagnosis of advanced NSCLC and 548 caregivers.
Context: Racial disparities in advance care planning (ACP) have been consistently identified in the literature. Few interventions have been designed to address the disparities identified.
Objectives: To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a culturally sensitive, pilot ACP intervention for African American patients diagnosed with cancer in a safety net healthcare system.
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) has consistently advocated for a healthcare system that meets the needs of older adults, including addressing impacts of ageism in healthcare. The intersection of structural racism and ageism compounds the disadvantage experienced by historically marginalized communities. Structural racism and ageism have long been ingrained in all aspects of US society, including healthcare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: Despite documented racial and ethnic disparities in care, there is significant variability in representation, reporting, and analysis of race and ethnic groups in the hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) literature.
Objectives: To evaluate the race and ethnic diversity of study participants and the reporting of race and ethnicity data in HPM research.
Methods: Adult patient and/or caregiver-centered research conducted in the U.
Objectives: Most patients with pancreatic cancer have high symptom burden and poor outcomes. Palliative care (PC) can improve the quality of care through expert symptom management, although the optimal timing of PC referral is still poorly understood. We aimed to assess the association of early PC on health care utilization and charges of care for pancreatic cancer patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisproportionate impact of COVID-19 is another in a long line of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities throughout the many realms of health care. The reasons for the disparities are manifold, with social determinants of health contributing heavily. Older adults have been identified as being at high risk of significant complications from COVID-19, and age coupled with other factors seems to put older adults belonging to underserved minorities at greatly heightened risk of those complications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to impact older adults disproportionately with respect to serious consequences ranging from severe illness and hospitalization to increased mortality risk. Concurrently, concerns about potential shortages of healthcare professionals and health supplies to address these issues have focused attention on how these resources are ultimately allocated and used. Some strategies, for example, misguidedly use age as an arbitrary criterion that disfavors older adults in resource allocation decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to impact older adults disproportionately, from severe illness and hospitalization to increased mortality risk. Concurrently, concerns about potential shortages of healthcare professionals and health supplies to address these needs have focused attention on how resources are ultimately allocated and used. Some strategies misguidedly use age as an arbitrary criterion, inappropriately disfavoring older adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvance care planning (ACP) improves end-of-life care for patients and their caregivers. However, only one-third of adults have participated in ACP and rates are substantially lower among African Americans than among whites. Importantly, ACP improves many domains of care where there are racial disparities in outcomes, including receipt of goal-concordant care, hospice use, and provider communication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly palliative care (PC) integrated with oncology care improves quality of life (QOL), depression symptoms, illness understanding, and end-of-life (EOL) care for patients with advanced lung cancer. The aims of this trial are to compare the effect of delivering early integrated PC through telehealth versus in-person on patient and caregiver outcomes. We hypothesize that both modalities for delivering early PC would be equivalent for improving patient QOL, communication about EOL care preferences with their oncologist, and length of stay in hospice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Advance care planning (ACP), palliative care (PC), and hospice are often underutilized by African Americans (AAs). This study assessed the impact of stage of intent to discuss ACP options as key potential barriers.
Methods: We examined intent to discuss completion of ACP, PC, and hospice among 22 AA patients with cancer admitted to a local safety net hospital.
Background: Palliative care, as a relatively young field within medicine, has increasingly used original research to validate and standardize its practice. In particular, palliative care has been incorporated into oncology to better address end-of-life decisions and care. The goal of this study is to identify seminal studies in the field of palliative oncology while more broadly characterizing the trends across the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The goal of this study was to examine the association between available patient and clinical characteristics and healthcare utilization in a cohort of breast, lung, and colorectal cancer patients within a safety-net hospital system.
Methods: Data for 979 breast, lung, and colorectal cancer patients admitted to a large, urban hospital for the year 2010 were extracted from the electronic medical record (EMR). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between relevant independent variables that were able to be captured from the EMR in discrete fields, emergency room (ER) utilization, and hospitalizations among members of the cohort.
Background: The provision of palliative and end-of-life care to patients who are underrepresented and underserved provides unique challenges and opportunities.
Objectives: To examine predictors of placement of inpatient palliative care consult orders among patients with breast, lung, and colorectal cancer hospitalized in a safety net hospital in 2010.
Methods: Simple and multivariable logistic regression of data on selected patients with cancer was performed to identify predictors of placement of inpatient palliative care consult orders.
Background: The nine-center Prognostic Assessment of Life and Limitations After Trauma in the Elderly consortium has validated the Geriatric Trauma Outcome Score (GTOS) as a prognosis calculator for injured elders. We compared GTOS' performance to that of the Trauma Injury Severity Score (TRISS) in a multicenter sample.
Methods: Three Prognostic Assessment of Life and Limitations After Trauma in the Elderly centers not submitting subjects to the GTOS validation study identified subjects aged 65 years to 102 years admitted from 2000 to 2013.
Objectives: We hypothesized that a decision-support aid to predict index admission mortality and discharge disposition for geriatric burns could be constructed using the well-accepted Baux score (age +total body surface area burned) in a geriatric-specific cohort.
Methods: National Burn Repository version 8.0 (2002-2011) was queried for all subjects aged 65 years or older.
Background: Studies have identified racial differences in advance care planning and use of hospice for care at the end of life. Multiple reasons for underuse among African American patients and their families have been proposed and deserve further exploration.
Objective: The goal of this study was to examine perceptions of advance care planning, palliative care, and hospice among a diverse sample of African Americans with varying degrees of personal and professional experience with end-of-life care and use these responses to inform a culturally sensitive intervention to promote awareness of these options.
Context: As endorsed by the palliative care "Measuring What Matters" initiative, capturing patients' direct assessment of their care is essential for ongoing quality reporting and improvement. Fostering an environment where seriously ill patients feel heard and understood is of crucial importance to modern health care.
Objectives: To describe the development and performance of a self-report field measure for seriously ill patients to report how well they feel heard and understood in the hospital environment.