A Revisit to the Formation and Mitigation of 3-Chloropropane-1,2-Diol in Palm Oil Production.

Process-based contaminants in food-particularly in vegetable oils-have been a topic of interest due to their potential health risk on humans. Oral consumption above the tolerable daily intake might result in health risks. Therefore, it is critical to correctly address the food contaminant issues with a proper mitigation plan, in order to reduce and subsequently remove the occurrence of the contaminant.

The impact of palliative care consults on deprescribing in palliative cancer patients.

Purpose: The transition from active cancer treatment to palliative care often results in a shift in drug risk-benefit assessment which requires the deprescribing of various medications. Deprescribing in palliative cancer patients can benefit patients by reducing their pill burden, decrease potential side effects, and potentially decrease healthcare costs. In addition, a change in patients' goals of care (GOC) necessitates the alteration of drug therapy which includes both deprescribing and the addition of medications intended to improve quality of life.

What is stable pain control? A prospective longitudinal study to assess the clinical value of a personalized pain goal.

Background: A universal consensus regarding standardized pain outcomes does not exist. The personalized pain goal has been suggested as a clinically relevant outcome measure.

Aim: To assess the feasibility of obtaining a personalized pain goal and to compare a clinically based personalized pain goal definition versus a research-based study definition for stable pain.

Impact of Adding a Pictorial Display to Enhance Recall of Cancer Patient Histories: A Randomized Trial.

Context: Current health care delivery models have increased the need for safe and concise patient handover. Handover interventions in the literature have focused on the use of structured tools but have not evaluated their ability to facilitate retention of patient information.

Objectives: In this study, mock pictorial displays were generated in an attempt to create a snapshot of each patient's medical and social circumstances.

Clinical prediction survival of advanced cancer patients by palliative care: a multi-site study.

Aims: This study examined (1) accuracy of clinician prediction of survival (CPS) by palliative practitioners on first assessment with the use of standardised palliative tools, (2) factors affecting accuracy, (3) potential impact on clinical care.

Methods: A multi-site prospective study (n=1530) was used. CPS was divided into four time periods (<=2wks, >2 to 6wks, >6 to 12wks and >12wks).

A brief review of survival prediction of advanced cancer patients.

Survival prediction of advanced cancer patients remains an important task for palliative clinicians. It has transformed from an art form into a more scientific branch of the discipline with the evolution of palliative medicine and use of statistical estimates of survival. Both clinician predicted survival and actuarial estimation of survival have their uses and drawbacks.

Conversion of Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG) to Palliative Performance Scale (PPS), and the interchangeability of PPS and KPS in prognostic tools.

Aim: The aim of our study was to assess whether the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status, and the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) are interchangeable individually or within two prognostic tools: the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) and the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI).

Methods: We performed a subset analysis of a prospective comparative study of functional and prognostic tools and clinician prediction of survival. We studied 955 patients with advanced life-limiting illnesses (cancer and noncancer) in the acute care and community settings.

Engineering natural language processing solutions for structured information from clinical text: extracting sentinel events from palliative care consult letters.

Despite a trend to formalize and codify medical information, natural language communications still play a prominent role in health care workflows, in particular when it comes to hand-overs between providers. Natural language processing (NLP) attempts to bridge the gap between informal, natural language information and coded, machine-interpretable data. This paper reports on a study that applies an advanced NLP method for the extraction of sentinel events in palliative care consult letters.

Impact of infections on the survival of hospitalized advanced cancer patients.

Context: Advanced cancer patients remain highly susceptible to infections, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. A lack of consensus on the management of infections in this population stems from the heterogeneity of the patient group, divergent goals of care, and unknown prognosis with antibiotic treatment.

Objectives: This prospective single cohort study examined the impact of infection and its treatment on the survival of hospitalized advanced cancer patients compared with a similar cohort without infection.

Evaluation of the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) and routinely collected clinical data in prognostication of survival for patients referred to a palliative care consultation service in an acute care hospital.

Context: Patients, caregivers, and clinicians require high levels of information regarding prognosis when conditions are incurable.

Objectives: 1) To validate the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) and 2) to evaluate prognostic capacity of used clinical tools and the diagnosis of delirium, in a population referred to a palliative care consultation service at a Canadian acute care hospital.

Methods: This was a prospective observational cohort study on survival prediction based on the PaP and routinely collected clinical data, including the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) and the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

The correlation of standard heart failure assessment and palliative care questionnaires in a multidisciplinary heart failure clinic.

Context: Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of death and disability, and despite optimal care, patients may eventually require palliative care. Little is known about how palliative care questionnaires (the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale [ESAS] and the Palliative Performance Scale [PPS]) perform compared with HF assessment using the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class and the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ).

Objectives: To assess the utility of a palliative care questionnaire in patients with HF.