Transformative Peer Connections: Early Experiences From the ASCO Palliative Care Community of Practice.

The integration of palliative care into routine oncology practice is the standard of care by most leading cancer organizations. Palliative medicine helps to deliver higher quality of care at a lower cost. However, there are barriers to implementing palliative oncology at many institutions for myriad reasons. In this article, we discuss an innovative strategy that ASCO implemented called the Communities of Practice (CoP). We share our experiences as the Palliative Care CoP and how our group seeks to develop processes and structures to collectively promote systemic change and enhance palliative care delivery for people with cancer. Our Palliative Care CoP engages with senior leaders, administrators, and those in power to achieve a shared vision of delivering holistic health care for people with serious illness. We continue to evolve to meet our members' growing needs by addressing eight main domains: (1) increasing palliative care education and resources; (2) creating opportunities for global palliative care research; (3) providing peer mentorship and community building; (4) engaging with patient advocates; (5) supporting and developing interdisciplinary teams; (6) assisting with professional development and identity formation, especially for trainees and early career faculty; (7) extending our outreach through social media; and (8) enhancing the clinical practice of palliative oncology. The ASCO CoP has been a vital forum to realize ASCO's mission of conquering cancer and advancing the Art and Science of Cancer Care: From Comfort to Cure.

Bridging the gap: Palliative care integration into survivorship care.

As the number of cancer survivors grows, there is an increasing need for comprehensive care to address the unique physical, psychological, and social needs of this population. Palliative care (PC) integration within survivorship care offers a promising model of care, however, there is no comprehensive review of literature to guide clinical practice. This manuscript presents a scoping review of the research literature on models of care that integrate PC with survivorship care, as well as a detailed description of an exemplar clinical model. We identified 20 articles that described various models of survivorship care with integrated PC, highlighting the diversity of approaches and the multidisciplinary nature of interventions. Few studies reported outcomes but those that did demonstrated improvements in pain, self-efficacy, depression, function, and documentation of advance care planning. The evidence base remains limited, indicating the need for further research in this area with a focus on exploring outcomes using prospective experimental designs. Future clinical practice and research should explore sustainable payment models and the implementation of integrated survivorship care in value-based payment systems.

The Influence of Palliative Care Consultation on Health-Care Resource Utilization During the Last 2 Months of Life: Report From an Integrated Palliative Care Program and Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND: We reviewed 104 consecutive deaths of veterans receiving care in the Dayton VA Medical Center from October 10, 2015 to April 11, 2016. The purpose of our study was to test our hypothesis that palliative care consultation would be associated with reduced health care resource utilization for individuals approaching end of life. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed and data entry recorded on a spreadsheet. Non-parametric statistical methods were used to compare four outcome variables from veterans with palliative care consultation (PCC) vs. those without PCC. These variables included the number of ED visits, hospitalizations, hospital days, and ICU days all during the last two months of life. Predictor variables included PCC vs. no PCC and PCC before vs. PCC during the last two months of life. The study sample was comprised of 102 patients after excluding two outlier cases with ethical challenges in surrogate decision-making. RESULTS: Of the 102 consecutive veteran deaths, palliative care consultation was associated with a lower number of ICU days during the last two months of life. For 96 veterans with PCC, the frequency of ED visits and acute care hospitalizations, as well as the number of ICU and hospital days, were all significantly less after PCC compared to before PCC during the last two months of life. The timing of PCC had no effect on the outcomes of interest. CONCLUSION: Palliative care consultation has a notable effect on health care resource utilization during the last two months of life.