Hospice & Palliative Care Today

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Welcome to Hospice & Palliative Care Today, a daily email summarizing numerous topics essential for understanding the current landscape of serious illness and end-of-life care. Teleios Collaborative Network podcasts review Hospice & Palliative Care Today monthly content - explore these and all TCN Talks podcasts.

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June 6th, 2026

Saturday newsletters focus on headlines and research - enjoy!

Contents

Research News

   1. The ASCENT Consortium to Publish Two Requests for Applications
   2. Decommodifying and humanizing health care: Revisiting Pellegrino's ethical imperative
   3. Implications of Medicare negotiation and most-favored-nation pricing for cancer medicine costs
   4. Black grief, Black healing: Exploring African American parents grief with cultural implications for treatment
   5. Anticipatory grief among caregivers of people living with dementia: A scoping review
   6. Social risk factors and disparities in advanced cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome
   7. Supporting complex decision making in dysphagia management within palliative rehabilitation
   8. Challenging case: Navigating end-of-life in neuro-inclusive cancer care
   9. Housing insecurity, incident geriatric conditions, and mortality in community-living older persons

International News

10. [Italy] The Ethics Committee of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) - Artificial intelligence in end-of-life decision-making processes: ethical reflections
11. [Italy] Understanding the evolving role of early palliative care in myelodysplastic syndromes: A 2026 narrative review

Today's Encouragement

12. Today's Encouragement

Research News

The ASCENT Consortium to Publish Two Requests for Applications
ASCENT Consortium press release; 6/4/26
The ASCENT Consortium is pleased to announce plans to publish a Request for Applications (RFA) for the ASCENT Research Scholar and Pilot and Exploratory Studies Awards Programs.

Research Scholar Award: ASCENT will fund up to 13 junior faculty looking to establish themselves as independent investigators in palliative care research.
Pilot and Exploratory Studies Award: ASCENT will fund up to 12 early-career investigators transitioning from a K to an R award and mid-career researchers exploring new directions.

Decommodifying and humanizing health care: Revisiting Pellegrino's ethical imperative

The Milbank Quarterly; by Kevin A. Fiscella, Alejandro J. Vera, Ashley M. Jenkins; 5/26

Edmund Pellegrino warned about the growing commodification of health and health care in the United States. The commodification of health and health care substantially worsened in the US, characterized by increased health care corporatization and consolidation, biomedical lobbying, and unaffordable costs. Commodification and dehumanization reinforce each other, undermining rights to health and health care, the provision of holistic person-centered health, and the fulfillment of human potential. Decommodifying and humanizing health and health care requires a paradigm shift towards whole-person definitions of health; the acknowledgement of human relationships as a foundation; the recognition of health as a social good; and the need for society and healthcare to partner to optimize health, including providing health care to all. This paradigm shift will require collective, cross-sectoral advocacy and mobilization not only by diverse health care professional organizations but also by organizations outside health care that are committed to improving health for all.

Assistant Editor's note: I am proud that hospice and palliative care, at its very core, continues to be person-centered, holistic and places high value on human relationships. However, we must remain diligent in holding tightly these principles as corporatization and commodification envelops health care systems.

Implications of Medicare negotiation and most-favored-nation pricing for cancer medicine costs
JAMA Health Forum; by Thomas J. Hwang, Ariadna Tibau, Aaron S. Kesselheim, Kerstin Noelle Vokinger; 5/26

In December 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed models for most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing for brand-name pharmaceuticals in Medicare Part B and Part D. Savings from Medicare negotiation and MFN pricing may be greater for cancer drugs than other drug classes because of low average rebates currently for cancer drugs and because international prices were 65% to 81% lower than US prices. Applying MFN pricing (as CMS proposed for Part B and Part D) could have substantially reduced Medicare cancer drug spending in 2024 beyond the negotiated prices achieved thus far. However, the long-term sustainability of these savings is uncertain, as such a policy would be prone to manufacturer gaming.

Assistant Editor's note: You can read more about MFN pricing by reading President Trump's executive order.

Black grief, Black healing: Exploring African American parents grief with cultural implications for treatment
Family Process; by Nyla Rogers, Shareefah Al'Uqdah, Denzell Brown, Briayanna Johnson; 6/26
African American parents experience child loss at disproportionately high rates, yet family systems and grief literature have largely overlooked this population's grief experience. This paper examines how therapists can provide culturally responsive care to African American parents navigating the death of a child. Drawing on existing literature, this paper expounds on the historical trends within the African American family system while delineating unique African American grief practices. Practical and culturally relevant clinical practices such as facilitating robust social support networks, creating structured opportunities for public and communal mourning, and therapeutically addressing the intensity of grief-related emotional responses are provided. Family therapists are called to expand their grief frameworks and family interventions beyond individualized, Western-centric models to encompass the collective, justice-oriented dimensions of loss that shape the lived experiences of African American families.

Anticipatory grief among caregivers of people living with dementia: A scoping review
Palliative & Supportive Care; by Nury Alejandra Rodriguez Colmenares, Loreli Alvarez, James Gilbreath, Adelais Markaki, Julie Schexnayder, Frank Puga; 5/26

As Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) progress, family caregivers may experience grief before the death of the person living with ADRD. This type of grief is commonly referred to as anticipatory grief, which can contribute to increased psychological distress (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms) and potentially affect caregivers' long-term mental health. This scoping review aimed to synthesize evidence on risk and resilience factors associated with anticipatory grief, its relationship with caregiver mental health, and psychosocial interventions targeting anticipatory grief among caregivers of people living with ADRD.

Social risk factors and disparities in advanced cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome
JAMA Network Open; by Obinna Ekwunife, Xuemeng Wang, Raphael A. Fraser, Alexander Yunke, Jennifer A. Campbell, Rebekah J. Walker, Leonard E. Egede; 5/26

In the US, cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic dysfunction are associated with excess morbidity, premature mortality, and substantial social and economic costs. Because the heart, kidneys, and metabolic systems are closely interconnected, dysfunction across these systems often cooccurs and has been defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) as cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome. Recent data indicate that up to 90% of US adults meet criteria for CKM syndrome, with 15% in advanced stages, and prevalence varying by sex and age. The burden is increasing over time and disproportionately affects marginalized populations. Social risk factors, such as unemployment, low income, food insecurity, and social isolation, have been associated with each component of CKM syndrome and contributing to disparities in morbidity and mortality.

Supporting complex decision making in dysphagia management within palliative rehabilitation

Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; by Kathleen Webler, Anne Galvin; 5/26

Dysphagia management within palliative rehabilitation demands careful navigation of medical risk, ethical complexity, and individual meaning. As patients progress along the continuum of serious illness, decisions about oral intake must evolve alongside shifts in prognosis, values, and care goals. This presentation explores how interdisciplinary rehabilitation teams, spanning medicine, therapy, nursing, and allied health, can support nuanced, patient-centered decision making in dysphagia care, particularly when clinical recommendations may conflict with patient preferences or surrogate requests.

Challenging case: Navigating end-of-life in neuro-inclusive cancer care

Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics; by Joan W Hanania, Melissa Levin, Damien M Miran, Katiuska J Ramirez, John Y Rhee, Ludmila A Svoboda, Robert G Voigt; 5/26

Roy is a 13-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder who has a recurrent glioblastoma. Roy's parents described him as a "beam of light" that came into their life as a "healing miracle" after experiencing multiple miscarriages. Roy was eventually admitted to the hospital for the management of an acute neurological decline. During prognostic dialogues with Roy's trusted primary oncology team, his parents remained focused on "finding a cure - a miracle" deferring hospice care and opting for life-prolonging treatments. Where do you go from here? What consultations might be helpful in this situation? What are relevant considerations for providing tailored end-of-life care for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities?

Housing insecurity, incident geriatric conditions, and mortality in community-living older persons
JAMA Network Open; by Yi Wang, Kendra Davis-Plourde, Brent Vander Wyk, Lucero G. Paredes, Thomas M. Gill, Robert D. Becher; 5/26

Despite the heightened housing-related vulnerabilities of older persons, little research has evaluated whether specific forms of housing insecurity are associated with clinically meaningful outcomes in this population. For older persons, mortality serves as a key and easily interpretable indicator of overall health, while geriatric conditions—such as frailty, disability, and dementia—are indicators of health and well-being that affect quality of life. In this cohort study of community-living older US persons, poor housing affordability was associated with higher risks of frailty, disability, dementia, and mortality, and poor housing quality was associated with higher risks of frailty, disability, and mortality. These findings highlight housing insecurity as a clinically relevant social determinant of health among older persons.

International News

[Italy] The Ethics Committee of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) - Artificial intelligence in end-of-life decision-making processes: ethical reflections

Journal of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Critical Care; by Enrico Furlan, Nereo Zamperetti, Mariassunta Piccinni, Annachiara Marra, Paolo Cotogni, Alberto Giannini; 5/26
Recent proposals to use artificial intelligence (AI) in end-of-life decision-making for incapacitated patients without advance directives have prompted critical reflection by the Ethics Committee of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI). This position paper analyzes both general ethical concerns surrounding AI in clinical practice and specific issues raised by the hypothesis of using AI to reconstruct patients' presumed wishes through recorded clinical conversations or analysis of digital footprints. ... algorithmic interpretation may fail to capture the complexity of non-verbal communication and the inherently interpretative nature of moral reasoning. The construction of a "social portrait" from digital traces risks oversimplifying personal identity and generating conflicts with family narratives at a particularly vulnerable moment. The Committee further highlights the risk of delegating ethically weighty relational tasks to technological systems, thereby reinforcing a procedural model of medicine and weakening shared decision-making.

[Italy] Understanding the evolving role of early palliative care in myelodysplastic syndromes: A 2026 narrative review
Annals of Hematology; by Pasquale Niscola, Valentina Gianfelici, Marco Giovannini, Carla Mazzone, Maria Ilaria Del Principe; 5/26
Myelodysplastic Syndromes/Neoplasms (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of blood cancers characterized by a broad spectrum of symptoms and varying impacts on quality of life (QoL). Although the integration of early PC care has long been recognized as an essential part of comprehensive management for patients with solid tumors, experience in the context of MDS is still limited. However, symptom control, QoL, advanced care planning goals, the reduction of aggressive therapies, intensive care use, including intubation before death, and resource use in the end-of-life (EOL) phase are critical issues that are enhanced through early PC in MDS management. Additionally, integrating standard hematological measures with early PC leads to fewer visits and hospital admissions near the EOL, particularly during the last 30 days. Moreover, patients with early PC die at home or in hospice care at a rate nearly in line with their preferences.

Today's Encouragement

Because I could not stop for death – He kindly stopped for me. ~Emily Dickinson

The Fine Print:
Paywalls: Some links may take readers to articles that either require registration or are behind a paywall. Disclaimer: Hospice & Palliative Care Today provides brief summaries of news stories of interest to hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care professionals (typically taken directly from the source article). Hospice & Palliative Care Today is not responsible or liable for the validity or reliability of information in these articles and directs the reader to authors of the source articles for questions or comments. Additionally, Dr. Cordt Kassner, Publisher, and Dr. Joy Berger, Editor in Chief, welcome your feedback regarding content of Hospice & Palliative Care Today. Unsubscribe: Hospice & Palliative Care Today is a free subscription email. If you believe you have received this email in error, or if you no longer wish to receive Hospice & Palliative Care Today, please unsubscribe here or reply to this email with the message “Unsubscribe”. Thank you.