Health care providers dedicate years to rigorous education and training to optimize medical care, aiming to heal and treat illness. However, historically, there has been a significant gap in training regarding the transition from a treatment-focused ap…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join us as we welcome psychiatrist Lewis Cohen to discuss his book, Winter’s End: Dementia and Dying Well. In this episode, we explore the ethical dilemmas, legal ch…
During a recent palliative conference, the discussion turned to the challenges of translating our work to the public and our colleagues. Despite the growth of our field and increasing access, there remains major confusion about palliative care and hosp…
We had been meeting for a number of months when she posed the question. We met in person one time, but other than that single appointment, all of our meetings were virtual. She had metastatic cancer. She didn’t actually want to know that her cancer had…
“Rejoin the natural cycle: to know that the last gesture you’ll make will be gentle and beneficial just feels like the right thing to do.” – Recompose founder Katrina Spade I love gardening and watching things grow, so I found t…
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join us as we delve into the complex terrain of end-of-life care and the contentious debate surrounding assisted suicide legislation. Cardiologist Joseph E. Marine offers …
I opened my internal medicine practice almost four decades ago to serve a growing urban community. I gravitated toward the underserved geriatric population as they were vulnerable patients and eventually moved into the bygone realm of house calls for h…
Are advance directives any better than they were four years ago when COVID was surging? Are patients still comfortable with being placed on ventilators? Do physicians better understand how to treat COVID as a serious illness? Physicians provide emerge…
Last month, the daughters of Wendy Miller, a 68-year-old author of three bestselling books about her experience with dementia, posted online her final words: “In the end, I died simply by deciding not to eat or drink anymore.” Her stark sta…
I walk into the patient’s hospital room during evening rounds. He looks pale and tired, having recently completed a round of chemotherapy for his stage IV pancreatic cancer. His wife is at the bedside, scared and concerned about her husband’…
