This episode features Dr Fiona Kenney and Koby Anderson, (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada)   What is already known about the topic? Previous research demonstrates a high prevalence of severe grief symptoms up to a year post-death of a loved one among those who experienced bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic. No previous study has assessed changes in the severity of grief more than a year after the death of a loved...

This episode features Sue-Ling Chang, (CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Oncology Division, Québec City, QC, Canada)   What is already known about the topic? There is a growing interest in psilocybin-assisted therapy worldwide, particularly to treat existential distress at the end of life.   What this paper adds? In this study, we show that the social acceptability of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat existential distress at the end of life is high in Canada and...

This episode features Dr Carlos Seiça Cardoso (Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal CINTESIS@RISE, MEDCIDS, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal)  What is already known about the topic? The burden of chronic, progressive, incurable and life-threatening illness is increasing, highlighting the need to integrate palliative care into patients’ care plans. Data indicate that involving General Practitioners in the provision of palliative...

This episode features Ellis Slotman (Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL), Utrecht, the Netherlands)  What is already known about the topic? Potentially inappropriate end-of-life care in patients with cancer is still common. The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to affect cancer diagnosis and treatment, but evidence on how the pandemic has affected end-of-life care is limited.   What this paper adds? The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with less potentially inappropriate...

This episode features Dr Vanessa Abrahamson, (Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent, Kent, UK).   What is already known about the topic? Increasingly, people at end-of-life want to die at home but this relies heavily on family carers to support the patient. Many carers struggle with the practical and emotional burden of caring for a loved one at home. Services providing hospice care at home are highly rated by carers but access is limited and the model of care varies...

This episode features Dr Nivedita Ashok, (University College London, London, UK).   What is already known about the topic? Individuals with intellectual disability or serious mental illness have high rates of mortality due to physical comorbidities. These populations have specific needs that should be met to provide optimum palliative care and maintain optimum mental healthcare at the end-of-life. While research exists describing the problems these populations face, little is known...

This episode features Caitlin Spooner (Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, University College London, London, UK).  What is already known about the topic? - Currently, there is no gold standard for evaluating how different methods of prognosticating in advanced cancer impact on patient care. - Prognostic models are principally evaluated by their statistical performance, determining their discrimination and calibration. However, before any prognostic model can be recommended...

This episode features Dr Amara Nwosu (Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK; and Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool, Liverpool, UK). The podcast is an overview of a published editorial on telehealth in palliative care. Dr Nwosu highlights the unrealised potential of palliative care telehealth, and discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with telehealth. Finally, Dr Nwosu describes the next...

Title "Hospital-service use in the last year of life by patients aged ⩾60 years who died of heart failure or cardiomyopathy: A retrospective linked data study" Description This episode features Dr Gursharan K Singh (Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia). What is already known about the topic? - Evidence based guidelines recommend palliative care for individuals with advanced heart failure, yet there...

This episode features Hannah May Scott (Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Palliative Care, Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, London, UK).   What is already known about the topic? - Although spiritual concerns are recognised as a core component of palliative care for children, there is a paucity of primary data. - Self-report data from children is rare, and existing evidence is largely proxy data from parents or health and social care professionals and...

This episode features Dr Jenny Lau (Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Palliative Care, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada) and Dr. Daniel Buchman (Everyday Ethics Lab, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON,...

This episode features Dr Rachael Moss (Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK). What is already known about the topic: - The degree to which individuals access and use palliative and end-of-life care services varies across communities and countries.   What this paper adds: - This study found that the South Asian community (in Bradford, UK) are currently not ready to engage with palliative and end-of-life care services despite...

This episode features Isabel Vandenbogaerde (End-of-life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium). What is already known about the topic: Involvement of family carers in advance care planning conversations is crucial for end-of-life decision-making. Family carers are willing to engage in advance care planning conversations, but experience barriers in doing so. Healthcare professionals may play an important role in supporting family...

This episode features Dr Joyce Chung and Weilin Chen (School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China). What is already known about the topic: End-of-life communication can improve patients’ quality of life, ease the bereavement experience, raise care satisfaction and reduce the utilisation of aggressive and expensive medical care. Healthcare professionals’ perceived barriers, such as fear of causing distress, impede the delivery of...

This episode features Suzanne Smith (Master of Palliative Care student, Flinders University, Australia; Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service, Australia), Dr Megan Doherty (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada; Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada) and Dr Mostofa Kamal Chowdhury  (BangabandhuSheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh). What is already known about the topic: The majority of children who need, but cannot access essential palliative care and...

This episode features Dr Richard Green (University of Surrey, Guildford, UK). Multimorbidity is increasing substantially worldwide, is associated with greater use of healthcare services, lower quality and quantity of life, and rises with age. Older people with multimorbidity are expected to become the main recipients of palliative care in the coming decades; however, there is limited evidence of their specific needs. Older people’s voices are vital to understanding their own palliative...

This episode features Dr Andrew Page (Academic Unit of Palliative Care, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK). Cancer pain is common, extremely debilitating, and undertreated worldwide. We do not know if non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aka NSAIDs or “anti-inflammatories”) are effective in managing cancer pain of any type. To further scientific understanding, UK palliative care doctors advocate a pragmatic trial to determine the role, if any, of NSAIDs as...

This episode features Dr James Downar (University of Ottawa, Canada). Early studies in the COVID-19 pandemic have suggested a high prevalence of severe grief symptoms, although most have used convenience or survey sampling methods which may bias the results, and most have assessed symptoms before pathological grief can be diagnosed (Full paper available from:     https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163221109711 If you would like to record a podcast about your published...

This episode features Dr Sofia Morberg Jämterud (Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden) and Anna Sandgren (Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden). Serious illness conversations promote patients’ possibility of receiving care that is in accordance with their wishes and priorities. Identifying patients for serious illness conversations remains difficult even when palliative care needs are identified. Identification of patients for serious illness conversations is a process influenced by a...

This episode features George Muishout (Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies, Amsterdam School for Historical Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). To Muslims it is important that medical decisions are in accordance with Islamic values. In life-threatening illness, Muslims ask imams for religious advice on medical decision-making. So far, it is unknown how imams view and perform this task in palliative care. Imams advise the faithful not...

This episode features researchers from the the University of Cologne (Germany) from the Faculty of Human Sciences and Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School GROW – Gerontological Research on Well-being, and also the Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Department of Palliative Medicine. The researchers are Helena Kukla, Angélique Herrler, Dr Julia Strupp and Professor Raymomd Voltz. Awareness of one’s impending death can lead to existential distress, thus impairing psychological...

This episode features Professor Scott Murray (Primary Palliative Care Research Group, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). People living at home with advanced progressive illness require well-coordinated services at all times of the day and night. Early identification for generalist palliative care support and care planning in the community can improve outcomes but requires effective information sharing across services. People with palliative care needs are high users of unscheduled...

This episode features Professor Raymond Voltz, Kathleen Boström and Dr Kerstin Kremeike (Department of Palliative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Patients in palliative care frequently express a desire to die that rarely leads to a request for medical aid in dying. Fearing to cause harm, health professionals report uncertainty regarding proactively approaching the topic with their patients. Suicidology research suggests that...

This episode features Si Qi Yoong (National University of Singapore, Singapore). Death doula is a relatively new role found in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Death doulas provide support to the dying and their families. There is uncertainty about its roles, scope of practice, regulation and position within the healthcare system. This review clarifies the uncertainty of the death doula movement in terms of its roles, impacts of care and regulation issues. This...