Advance Care Planning for Black and White older adults with serious illness
JAMA Network; by Kimberly S. Johnson, Deborah Ejem, Alyssa Platt, Maren Olsen, Tammie Quest, Nadine Barrett, Ramona Rhodes, Anupama Gangavati, Ronit Elk, Marie Bakitas, Marisette Hasan, Kenisha Bethea, Sherone N. Williams-Bryant, Felicia Underwood, Jane Lowers, Karen Steinhauser, Rowena Dolor, Raegan W. Durant; 10/7/26
The EQUAL ACP Randomized Trial. Is a facilitated advance care planning (ACP) approach more effective than a self-guided ACP approach among Black and White adults 65 years or older with a serious illness? In this cluster randomized clinical trial of 789 participants, ACP completion (advance directive, clinician note, or family discussion about end-of-life care preferences) at 1 year did not differ significantly by intervention. Among Black participants, completion was 71% with the facilitated approach and 62% with the self-guided approach. Among White participants, it was 68% and 78%, respectively.

Communication and support needs of dementia care partners at end-of-life
American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine; by Jordan M. Alpert, Michael B. Rothberg, Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, Ardeshir Z. Hashmi, Silvia Perez-Protto, Jacqueline Fox, Elaine Wittenberg; 9/26
Care partners of people with dementia have many responsibilities, including providing care at end-of-life (EOL). Discussions about EOL are often delayed until late in the course of disease, if they occur at all. We found that clinician-initiated discussions and a positive perception of the clinician-care partner relationship contributed to care partners’ willingness to communicate. Care partners usually waited for clinicians to bring up EOL topics and felt apprehensive about these discussions, which hampered their ability to communicate effectively about EOL. Information-seeking was constrained by uncertainty about timing, lack of private discussion opportunities, and perceived limited personalization.

Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know about caring for people with interstitial lung diseases
Journal of Palliative Medicine; by Jyothsna Kuriakose, Jacopo D'Andria Ursoleo, Barney Isaac, Balamugesh Thangakunam, Donald R Sullivan, Kathleen Lindell, Anne-Marie Russell, Rachel Hadler, Matthew Maddocks, Natalia Smirnova, Russell Portenoy, M R Rajagopal, Sarah Mohammed, Anand S Iyer, Smriti Rana, Natasha Smallwood, Christopher A Jones, Jenifer Jeba Sundararaj; 9/26
Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) represent a heterogenous group of illnesses with significant multidimensional suffering and varied prognoses. The complex care needs of people with ILD and their caregivers are underrecognized and incompletely addressed. This gap necessitates shared care by a multidisciplinary team along the illness trajectory. PC [palliative care] clinicians need to understand the illness patterns, prognoses, therapeutic options including lung transplant, symptom management, and other supportive interventions in ILD care. This article distills the current evidence into 10 practical tips to assist PC clinicians in delivering comprehensive care to people with ILD. Well-informed PC teams can significantly influence the illness experience of individuals with ILD and their caregivers, thereby reducing serious health-related suffering.

Understanding the dynamics of decision-making in palliative care within collectivist contexts: Integrative review
BMC Palliative Care; by Silva Dakessian Sailian, Farah Demachkieh, Lea Chaiban, Mira Rahm, Cynthia X. Pan, Deniz Güneş, Robert S. Crupi; 9/26
End-of-life decision-making in palliative care requires timely and compassionate communication to align care with patients’ goals and values. While shared decision-making is regarded as optimal for patient-centered care, its application in collectivist societies, where familial, religious, and social norms predominate over individual likes, remains understudied. Conclusion: In collectivist contexts, end-of-life decisions unfold through complex interactions among patients, families, and clinicians, shaped by the interplay of established interpersonal and sociocultural values within broader institutional and economic systems. A relational decision-making conceptual framework is proposed, emphasizing culturally embedded, ongoing interactions among patients, families, and healthcare providers that accommodate a continuum of decision-making preferences, ranging from full family dependence or clinician-led to greater patient involvement, within the context of shared cultural values and healthcare structures.

End-of-life care patterns by transplant eligibility among patients with end stage kidney disease
Journal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Annie Liu, Jennifer F.N. Kizza-Brown, Ayman Al Jurdi, Ayesha M. Malik, Anushka Dalvi, Sharneet Sandhu, Lina Nurhussien, Nora K. Horick, Onyenma E. Obiejesie, Grace Bizup, Malia Armstrong, Kassem Safa, Sahir Kalim, Samantha Gelfand, Joshua Lakin, James A. Tulsky, Areej El-Jawahri, Nneka N. Ufere; 9/26
Adults with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) often spend years awaiting kidney transplantation, during which transplant listing status frequently changes from active to inactive – a phase marked by evolving expectations. In the last year of life, patients had a median of two emergency department visits ... , two hospitalizations ... , and 25 cumulative hospital days ... Overall, 61% died in the hospital and 59% remained full code at death, and 18% were referred to hospice (median stay four days ... ) Conclusion: Adults with ESKD on dialysis experience intensive end-of-life care regardless of transplant eligibility. Switches to inactive status may represent a clinical inflection point to address prognostic understanding and transplant expectations.

Unmet needs of transgender and gender-diverse adults with serious illness receiving hospice and palliative care: A thematic scoping review
American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care; by Emma Max, Steven Meanley, Nancy A Hodgson; 9/26
Transgender and gender-diverse individuals experience higher mortality rates and elevated incidence of serious illness compared to cisgender populations. Despite these disparities, discrimination and stigma continue to create barriers to high-quality hospice and palliative care. A descriptive thematic analysis identified four categories of unmet needs: (1) competent healthcare professionals with gender-affirming training; (2) holistic, inclusive care delivery models; (3) family and chosen family engagement protocols; and (4) protective institutional policies and legal frameworks. This review exposes substantial under-resourcing of research on gender-diverse patients' end-of-life needs. Urgent priorities include systematic competency training for hospice and palliative care professionals, development of evidence-based clinical guidelines, advocacy for protective legal frameworks, and most critically, conducting robust qualitative and quantitative research centering transgender patients' lived experiences and priorities in serious illness care.

Assumptions and principles for responsible AI development and use in grief and bereavement care
Death Studies; by Melissa Lunardini, Chris Hall, Larissa Hjorth, Phyllis Kosminsky, Val Massdorp, Andy Hau Yan Ho, International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG); 9/26
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into grief and bereavement care represents a significant technological shift with therapeutic potential and ethical complexity. This paper establishes evidence-informed assumptions and principles to guide the responsible development and use of AI technologies in grief support, addressing the needs of bereaved individuals, families, communities, professionals, technology developers, and policymakers. We conclude that AI technologies can complement human-centered grief support through responsible development characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration, transparency, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to human dignity and welfare over commercial interests.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater. ~Bono