ICU to Hospice Transitions Are Increasing. What Should We Measure Now?
What the study examined A new national study examined US Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries over age 65 who were admitted to an ICU between 2011 and 2023. The authors found that discharges to hospice after ICU admission increased substantially over time, including...
Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD): Analyzing Trends in Academic Literature
A recent narrative review published in Cureus examined trends in U.S. academic publications on Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD). Rather than arguing for or against MAiD, the authors analyzed the scholarly literature itself. They reviewed recent peer-reviewed articles and...
Music, the Brain, and End-of-Life Care
A recent study published in PLOS ONE explores how music influences the way the brain processes, learns, and remembers information. The researchers found that listening to music - especially music that is familiar and predictable - can significantly affect attention,...
Topological turning points across the human lifespan
This large-scale study analyzed 4,216 diffusion MRI brain scans from individuals aged 0 to 90. The aim of the study was to map how the brain’s structural wiring - the connections that allow different regions to communicate - changes throughout the entire human...
End-of-Life Care for Older Adults With Dementia by Race and Ethnicity and Physicians’ Role
Abstract Importance Evidence is limited regarding whether end-of-life care for individuals with dementia varies by race and ethnicity, and whether observed variations can be explained by differences in the physicians providing their care....
The Value of Timely Hospice Enrollment
Despite the clear benefits of hospice care, many patients are referred very late - sometimes in their final days of life - limiting the opportunity to benefit from its full scope. Two of the most commonly cited reasons for this delayed referral are: Clinician-related...
What Is Hospice? Finding Meaning in Comfort and Care
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a Perspective titled “What Is Hospice?” - a piece that captures, in striking detail, what hospice truly means beyond the policies, programs, and checklists that are so often discussed in healthcare. It begins with...
Hospice Voices and End-of-Life Choices: A Powerful Call for Compassion
A shift is unfolding across the United States as more states are enacting Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) laws. This legislation allows terminally ill, mentally capable adults with a prognosis of six months or less to request medication to end their lives peacefully. As...
The Role of HealthCare Workers in Shaping the Bereavement Journey
Loss is inevitable when working in end-of-life care. But the grief that follows is not simply the family’s burden alone. The way care is delivered before, at, and after the death of a loved one significantly influences whether bereavement becomes a manageable process...
A Hospice Intervention for Caregivers: Improving Home Hospice Management of End-Of-Life Symptoms (I-HoME) Pilot Study
Background While home-based hospice care seeks to reduce suffering at the end of life (EoL), patients continue to experience a high symptom burden. High symptom burden contributes to adverse outcomes, including patient suffering, burdensome care transitions, and...