Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2024
Use of Essential Medicines for Pain Relief and Palliative Care: a global consensus process.
The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines includes 24 medications under the section Medicines for Pain and Palliative Care (EML). The Lancet Commission on Pain and Palliative Care developed the Lancet Essential Package (LEP), including 35 medications designed to alleviate serious health-related suffering worldwide. ⋯ We were able to partly achieve our goal, with limited evidence and a wide range of clinical practice described by the experts. This highlights an important gap in critical information which affects mostly the provision of palliative care at the primary care. Both limited availability and lack of training on the adequate use of essential medications may affect how clinicians manage symptoms, possibly relying on personal experience or trial and error, rather than evidence-based information.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2024
Implementation and Evaluation of a Pediatric Palliative Care Curriculum for Adult-Track HPM Fellows.
Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellowship training provides education on caring for patients from early childhood through adulthood. Yet, there are few guidelines about how to teach these key components, and more specifically the components of Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC), to fellows who have a variety of backgrounds prior to entering HPM fellowship. ⋯ The study revealed some limitations in the current curriculum design, such as its lack of consistency. However, it also highlighted several strengths, including the importance of flexibility and personal responsibility for learning. The results provide valuable insights into the experiences among fellows and educators at a single institution with a PPC Curriculum for adult-track HPM fellows.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2024
Distributed Opioids in Morphine Equivalent: A Global Measure of Availability for Palliative Care.
Estimates of serious health-related suffering (SHS) demonstrate immense unmet need for palliative care, predominately in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Because opioids are essential medicines in palliative care (PC), measuring their availability can be used to evaluate the capacity of health systems to meet need. ⋯ DOME and DOME%SHSNEED can be used to monitor health system progress to redress disparities and promote access to medically indicated opioid therapy in palliative care.