Literature Review

Instilling hope: A comprehensive model of cancer care for younger adults Targeted Oncology; by Andrea Eleazar, MHS and Shane Dormady, MD, PhD; 9/29/25 In the past decade, the incidence of numerous cancer types has increased, particularly among younger adults under age 50. For younger adults, many of whom are primary breadwinners of their households or in the height of their educational or professional careers, a cancer diagnosis at this life stage can be unexpected and jarring. ... In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Shane Dormady, MD, PhD, medical director of El Camino Health Cancer Center, describes the unique needs and challenges of younger adults, outlines El Camino Health’s comprehensive care strategy, and offers insights and considerations for treating and interacting with this patient population.

Cook Children’s physician testifies in Jarvey trialTexomas, Wichita Falls, TX KFDX/KJTL; by Joshua Hoggard; 9/26/25AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story contains details from trial proceedings that include allegations of abuse against a child victim. Due to the content of this story, discretion is advised before reading. ...Hospice physician concludes first week of trial: After lunch, Carlton called Dr. J. Robert Parkey to the witness stand. Dr. Parkey works with United Regional Healthcare Systems and specializes in hospice medicine. ... Dr. Parkey testified that he provided care for the victim after he was born, noting the severe medical issues the child was born with, including an abnormal brain. ... Dr. Parkey testified that the victim “exceeded all expectations” of the Hospice care team by surviving, ... He testified that the team instructed Jarvey on how to properly care for the child once he transitioned from hospice care to home care. Dr. Parkey testified that if Jarvey had reached out to the Hospice team, plenty of resources would’ve been made available to her, but to his knowledge, Jarvey never contacted them regarding the care of her son.

Long COVID hitting doctors and nurses hard Medscape; by David Brzostowkicki; 9/3/25 Jeffrey Siegelman, MD, contracted COVID-19 in August 2020 and, 3 months later, published a paper online in JAMA about his experiences. Today, he’s still dealing with the symptoms, as one of many healthcare providers who have long COVID. He said his experience highlights the impact of long COVID on hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, by some estimates, who have been on the frontlines fighting the pandemic from the beginning. “I reflect on that paper from JAMA, and I thought that 3 months was a long time,” said Siegelman, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine and a practicing emergency room doctor in Atlanta. “And here I am, 5 years later, and I still have symptoms. I think that’s the case for a lot of patients with long COVID, that it just keeps getting longer.”

Advance care planning with people living with dementia: Ethical considerations of physicians in the United States and the Netherlands The Journals of Gerontology; by Jingyuan Xu, David R Mehr, Marieke Perry, K Taylor Bosworth, Kate McGough, Wilco P Achterberg, Hanneke Smaling, Jenny T van der Steen; 8/25Interviews with 50 Dutch physicians and 47 American physicians and 3 nurse practitioners generated three themes of ethical considerations: 1) Respecting the autonomy of the person with dementia, 2) Rationality as the basis for decisions and subsequent actions, and 3) Minimizing burden and suffering. The complexity of ACP [advance care planning] for people living with dementia is reflected in the challenges within each ethical consideration and the tensions between them, especially between autonomy and rationality. We recommend an approach to ACP that balances the ethical considerations, focusing on the values of the people living with dementia and allowing flexibility in future decision-making to take the current best interest of the person into account.

A decade of interactive educational exchange: Impacting interprofessional palliative care educationJournal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Laura J Morrison, Shirley Otis-Green, Julie Bruno, Pamela N Fordham, Elise C Carey; 9/25The interprofessional clinical practice model is arguably the most impactful and generative aspect of hospice and palliative care (HPC) clinical practice. This article describes the innovative shared interprofessional leadership model, andragogical infrastructure, program development, educational impact, and critical lessons from the Interactive Educational Exchange (IEE). In response to a deficit in interprofessional HPC educational opportunities for rapid scholarship dissemination and mentorship, interprofessional leaders from medicine, social work and nursing proposed and implemented the IEE at the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care presented by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association from 2010-2020. The reported outcome measures for interprofessional scholarship and engagement, session evaluations, and attendance demonstrate why this successful innovation was repeated annually for over a decade pre-COVID. 

Cancer patients are living longer than ever. Pain drugmakers haven’t kept up. Biopharma Dive; by Jacob Bell; 9/25/25 Decades of slow-moving research, along with broader failures of the healthcare system, have left millions of people in daily pain. Doctors fear that’s bound to continue. ... More than 2 million people in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with cancer each year. Conservative estimates hold that between 20% and 50% experience related pain, though that figure can climb as high as 80% for patients with advanced disease. Despite the large number of patients and the need for more therapies, drugmakers have mostly shied away from pain altogether, fearing that its complicated biology makes for too risky a research investment.  ... Opioids remain the core of many treatment regimens. This lack of drug choices is aggravated by much broader failures of the healthcare system. 

Let's face (to face) it: Important changes to hospice face-to-face attestation requirements and other tidbits from the 2026 Hospice Final Rule Husch Blackwell; podcast by Meg Pekarske; 9/24/25 ... All in all, the news is positive: while there is a new requirement for the F2F attestation to be signed and dated, the signed and dated F2F clinical note on its own can now serve as the F2F attestation. In this episode, Husch Blackwell attorneys Meg Pekarske and Andrew Brenton share their thoughts on what the updated F2F attestation rules mean for hospice operators and weigh in on other components of the final rule, including CMS’s attempt at housekeeping by clarifying the types of hospice physicians who can certify patients. 

Nurse practitioner, RN shortage to hit 362,000 by 2032 Becker's Clinical Leadership; by Paige Twenter; 9/17/25 More than 1 million U.S. nurses are expected to retire by 2030 — far outpacing the projected number of new nurse graduates, according to research published Sept. 16. A study at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, based in Washington, D.C., investigated the growing skills shortage across 561 occupations. ... Between 2024 and 2032, an estimated 18.4 million workers with postsecondary education are expected to retire, according to the report. Only 13.8 million workers will enter the labor market with equivalent education and training ... The researchers predict a shortfall of 328,100 registered nurses, 42,100 licensed practical nurses and 33,800 nurse practitioners through 2032. 

Ground-breaking pilot brings medical students into nursing homes in Hampshire University of Southampton, United Kingdom; by the University of Southampton; 9/18/25 Third-year medical students are undertaking placements in local social care settings in a new pilot programme developed by the University of Southampton and the Hampshire Care Association. The initiative aims to bridge the gap between health and social care by providing the next generation of doctors with real-world insight into the care sector and the critical role it plays in people’s lives. 

New ‘action plan’ gives providers tools to prevent falls, minimize injuries  McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 9/18/25 The National Council on Aging this week published its 2025 National Falls Prevention Action Plan, a report that offers strategies home care providers can use to protect their clients from injury. NCOA’s action plan has six goals: boosting awareness, expanding funding, promoting clinical interventions, enhancing care coordination, upgrading technological capabilities and improving data collection for fall prevention activities. While the action plan aims to inform policymakers about ways to protect older adults from falls, it also includes actionable strategies home care providers can employ to keep their clients safe.

Early palliative care intervention improves end-of-life care in ovarian cancer Medscape; by Maurie Markman, MD; 9/18/25 ... This particular study asked an important question: Is there a relationship between that timing when palliative care is introduced to the ultimate end-of-life aggressiveness of care (emergency room use, use of intensive care, and hospitalization)? ... The outcome was timing, or introduction, of palliative care with emergency room use, hospitalization, and intensive care use within the last 30 days of life and chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life, as well as the risk of death occurring in the hospital.  ... The investigators found that any palliative care or any use of a palliative care physician called in as a consult earlier than 3 months before the death was associated with a lower risk of aggressive end-of-life care. 

What makes a good death? GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast for Every Healthcare Professional; by Alex Smith with Karen Steinhauser, Rasa Mikelyte and Edison Vidal; 9/18/25What is a “good death”? How should we define it, and who gets to decide? Is the concept of a “good death” even useful? ... In today’s podcast, we are honored to have Karen join us to discuss this pivotal study and the nature of a “good death”. We are also joined by Rasa Mikelyte and Edison Vidal, co-authors of a recent study comparing the perspectives of people with dementia in the UK and Brazil on what constitutes a good death. In addition to exploring the nature of a good death and their individual studies, we will discuss:

Associations of patient experience with doctor-patient communication and patient-reported physical and mental health in seriously ill adultsJournal of Patient Experience; by Sarah F. D’Ambruoso, Anne M. Walling, Neil S. Wenger, Rebecca L. Sudore, Lisa Gibbs, Maryam Rahimi, Ron D. Hays; 8/25We administered the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) communication scale, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement and Information System (PROMIS®) global health items, and the PROMIS-29 depression and anxiety scales. Better global health (PROMIS) at baseline was associated with better doctor-patient communication (CAHPS) at 12 months ... and better doctor-patient communication at baseline was related to better mental health at follow-up ...The results suggest that patients’ overall health may influence doctor-patient communication, and this communication may impact patients’ mental health over time.