Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · May 2019
Multicenter StudySymptoms and anxiety predict declining health-related quality of life in multiple myeloma: A prospective, multi-centre longitudinal study.
Patients with multiple myeloma, an incurable haematological cancer, often receive palliative care only late in their trajectory. Criteria for early referral are lacking. ⋯ General symptom level, pain and presence of anxiety predict declining Health related quality of life in multiple myeloma. Identification of patients with palliative care needs should focus on assessing patient-reported symptoms and psychosocial well-being for identifying those at risk of deterioration.
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Palliative medicine · May 2019
Space for intuition - the 'Surprise'-Question in haemato-oncology: Qualitative analysis of experiences and perceptions of haemato-oncologists.
Early integration of palliative care can improve outcomes for people with cancer and non-cancer diagnoses. However, prediction of survival for individuals is challenging, in particular in patients with haematological malignancies who are known to have limited access to palliative care. The 'Surprise'-Question can be used to facilitate referral to palliative care. ⋯ Irrespective of its use in prognostication, the 'Surprise'-Question is a valuable tool to facilitate consideration of patient-centred goals and promote holistic care in haemato-oncology. However, prognostic uncertainty, lack of time and communication skills are barriers for integration into daily practice. Further research should involve haematology patients to integrate their needs and preferences.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2019
Development and validation of search filters to find articles on palliative care in bibliographic databases.
Healthcare professionals and researchers in the field of palliative care often have difficulties finding relevant articles in online databases. Standardized search filters may help improve the efficiency and quality of such searches, but prior developed filters showed only moderate performance. ⋯ Our search filters can support literature searches in the field of palliative care. Our specific filter retrieves 93.7% of relevant articles, while 45% of the retrieved articles are relevant. This filter can be used to find answers to questions when time is limited. Our sensitive filter finds 99.6% of all relevant articles and may, for instance, help conducting systematic reviews. Both filters perform better than prior developed search filters in the field of palliative care.