Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2022
The Science of Context: Transforming Serious Illness Care Though In Situ Observation.
There is an expression, often attributed to Einstein, “If I had 60 minutes to save the world, I would spend the first 55 trying to figure out what was wrong with it.” Dr. J. Randall (Randy) Curtis’ approach to improving serious illness care has been so effective for exactly this reason. ⋯ Herein, we highlight Randy’s early work using direct observation and describe the trajectory and impact of his ground-up approach to research. In parallel, we describe the influence of his approach on our own work studying serious illness care in surgery and critical care. Although neither of us has had direct mentorship from Randy, we emulate Randy’s pioneering mentorship model in our work together, demonstrating his far-reaching influence.