People who die of old age may be less likely to receive good care at the end of their lives, according to a study from the University of Cambridge, funded by Marie Curie and published in the British Journal of General Practice. The research highlights the way an “end-of-life” diagnosis shapes care provision. It shows […]
Effect of behaviour change techniques targeting clinicians to improve advance care planning in heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Summary by Dr Markus Schichtel, GP and post-doctoral researcher at the Palliative and End of Life Care Group at the Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge. National and international guidelines advocate advance care planning (ACP) to facilitate better end-of-life care in heart failure. ACP is a voluntary process of discussion between patients, family clinicians and […]
Rapid changes in end-of-life care will affect patients at home and in care homes in the UK
Family members are being trained to administer drugs in case doctors or nurses are not available to give injections when needed and new palliative care drugs are being considered for use during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research carried out at the height of the pandemic. Dr Stephen Barclay and Dr Barbara Antunes from the […]
Advance care planning should be person-centred, not plan-centred, say end-of-life care researchers in BMJ editorial
Compared to younger people, older people and those with frailty are more likely to die from acute infections, such as COVID-19, and less likely to survive intensive care. Advance care planning conversations rarely took place with older or frail people before the pandemic, but have now become prominent in the media amidst concerns about denial […]
Advance care planning is shown to significantly improve quality of life for patients with heart failure
Advance care planning significantly improves quality of life for patients with heart failure, concludes the first systematic evaluation of published evidence on this topic, led by Dr Markus Schichtel at the Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge. The review shows that patients with heart failure who have had the opportunity to take part in advance […]
How to help doctors discuss treatment options with heart failure patients
Doctors and other clinicians looking after patients with heart failure may avoid ‘Advance Care Planning’ conversations with the patient because they seem like an admission of failure, according to a new review of research looking at how these conversations are helped or hindered. Some clinicians feared that such conversations would ‘destroy hope’. Cardiologists in particular […]