Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2015
Multicenter StudyMedical Oncology Patients: Are They Offered Help and Does It Provide Relief?
Identifying modifiable gaps in the symptom management pathway, as perceived by patients, is the first step to relieving patient suffering. ⋯ Quality improvement initiatives must focus primarily on improving providers' awareness of their patients' symptoms and ensuring that patients are subsequently offered help.
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PC-FACS(FastArticleCriticalSummaries for Clinicians inPalliativeCare) provides hospice and palliative care clinicians with concise summaries of the most important findings from more than 100 medical and scientific journals. If you have colleagues who would benefit from receiving PC-FACS, please encourage them to join the AAHPM at aahpm.org. Comments from readers are welcomed at pc-facs@aahpm.org.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2015
Multicenter Study Comparative Study Observational StudyAccuracy of a Diagnostic Algorithm to Diagnose Breakthrough Cancer Pain as Compared with Clinical Assessment.
Breakthrough cancer pain (BTCP) is a heterogeneous condition, and there are no internationally agreed standardized criteria to diagnose it. There are published algorithms to assist with diagnosis, but these differ in content. There are no comparative data to support use. ⋯ The diagnostic breakthrough pain algorithm had a good positive predictive value but limited sensitivity using a cutoff score of "mild" to define controlled background pain. When the cutoff level was changed to moderate, the sensitivity increased, but specificity reduced. A comprehensive clinical assessment remains the preferred method to diagnose BTCP.