Journal of palliative medicine
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To ensure seriously ill people and their families receive high-quality primary and specialty palliative care services, rigorous methods are needed to prospectively identify this population. ⋯ Standard administrative data are inadequate to identify this population. Defining the seriously ill denominator with high specificity, as described here, will focus efforts toward the highest-need segment of the population, who may indeed benefit most.
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As palliative care (PC) moves upstream in the course of advanced illness, it is critical that PC providers have a broad understanding of curative and palliative treatments for serious diseases. Possessing a working knowledge of radiation therapy (RT), one of the three pillars of cancer care, is crucial to PC providers given RT's role in both the curative and palliative settings. This article provides PC providers with a primer on the vocabulary of RT; the team of people involved in the planning of RT; and common indications, benefits, and side effects of treatment.
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While early involvement and integration of palliative care with oncology can positively impact quality of life and survival of patients with advanced cancer, there is a dearth of information regarding this integration in sub-Saharan Africa. ⋯ Despite recognized benefits of palliative collaboration, doctors at the UCI seldom refer patients to palliative care specialists due to limited staffing, cultural barriers, and difficult interservice communication.