Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2021
Review Meta AnalysisClinically Significant Depressive Symptoms are Prevalent in People with Extremely Short Prognoses - A Systematic Review.
Currently, systematic evidence of the prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms in people with extremely short prognoses is not available to inform its global burden, assessment, and management. ⋯ Clinically, significant depressive symptoms were prevalent in people with advanced life-limiting illnesses and extremely short prognoses. Clinicians need to be proactive in the recognition and assessment of these symptoms to allow for timely intervention.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2021
Identifying Goals of Care Conversations in the Electronic Health Record, Using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning.
Goals-of-care discussions are an important quality metric in palliative care. However, goals-of-care discussions are often documented as free text in diverse locations. It is difficult to identify these discussions in the electronic health record (EHR) efficiently. ⋯ Using NLP and ML techniques, we developed a novel approach to identifying goals-of-care discussions in the EHR. NLP and ML represent a potential approach toward measuring goals-of-care discussions as a research outcome and quality metric.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2021
The Palliative Care - Promoting Assessment and Improvement of the Cancer Experience (PC-PAICE) Project: A Multi-Site International Quality Improvement Collaborative.
Mentors at seven U. S. and Australian academic institutions initially partnered with seven leading Indian academic palliative care and cancer centers in 2017 to undertake a program combining remote and in-person mentorship, didactic instruction, and project-based learning in quality improvement (QI). From its inception in 2017 to 2020, the Palliative Care-Promoting Accesst and Improvement of the Cancer Experience Program conducted three cohorts for capacity building of 22 Indian palliative care and cancer programs. ⋯ EQuIP-India now leads ongoing Indian national collaboratives and training in QI and is integrated into India's National Cancer Grid. Palliative Care-Promoting Accesst and Improvement of the Cancer Experience demonstrates a feasible model of international collaboration and capacity building in palliative care and cancer QI. It is one of the several networked and blended learning approaches with potential for rapid scaling of evidence-based practices.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2021
How to Be a Friend-Who-is-a-Physician Without Being a Physician Friend.
As physicians, we are often asked for advice when loved ones become ill. Sometimes, the request advice is explicit; often, it is more supportive in nature and this may blur the boundary between being a friend and being a physician. Through various excerpts from social medial exchange, this narrative discusses the experience with a friend who was diagnosed with head and neck cancer during my Palliative Medicine Fellowship.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2021
Review Meta AnalysisPrevalence of Fatigue in Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Fatigue is a particularly common and troubling symptom that has a negative impact on quality of life throughout all phases of treatment and stages of the illness among patients with cancer. ⋯ This meta-analysis highlights the importance of developing optimal monitoring strategies to reduce fatigue and improve the quality of life of patients with cancer.