Shows / GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
A geriatrics and palliative medicine podcast for every health care professional. Two UCSF doctors, Eric Widera and Alex Smith, invite the brightest minds in geriatrics, hospice, and palliative care to talk about the topics that you care most about, ranging from recently published research in the field to controversies that keep us up at night. You'll laugh, learn, and maybe sing along. CME and MOC credit available (AMA PRA Category 1 credits) at www.geripal.org
Episodes
- GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
Should Palliative Care be in the Survivorship Business? A Podcast with Laura Petrillo, Laura Shoemaker
In this week's episode, we dig into two deceptively simple questions: When does someone become a cancer survivor, and should palliative care be in the business…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastHealth and Wealth Shocks: Lauren Hunt, Rebecca Rodin, Tsai-Chin Cho
June Lunney famously characterized the end of life functional course of people with dementia as a slow dwindle over time. Tom Gill later found that people with…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastTransgender Health, Aging, and Advocacy: A Podcast with Noelle Marie Javier and Jace Flatt
Happy Pride Month GeriPal listeners! Transgender issues are in the news. Just today (June 17th) as we record this podcast: Ezra Klein released a wonderful…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastWhat You Should Know About Radiation Oncology: A Podcast with Anish Butala, Emily Martin and Evie Kalmar
If you're anything like me, you might find the process of what happens to patients when they visit a radiation oncologist somewhat mysterious. During my…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastImplementing Palliative Care in Nursing Homes
The need for better palliative care in nursing homes is significant. Consider this: the majority of the 1.4 million adults residing in U.S. nursing homes…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastLucid Episodes: Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi & Andrew Peterson
Have any of you watched the movie "The Notebook"? At the end, one of the characters, who has dementia, experiences an episode of lucidity. When I watched it…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastMusic as Medicine: Jenny Chen, Tyler Jorgensen, & Theresa Allison
As you know, dear listeners, I love music. We start each podcast with a song in part to shift the frame, taking people out of their academic selves and into a…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastNudges for Prognosis and Comfort Care in the ICU: Kate Courtright, Scott Halpern, & Jaspal Singh
Our main focus today was on nudging critical care clinicians to consider a more palliative approach to care. Our guests are all trained in critical care: Kate…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPsilocybin in Serious Illness: A Podcast with James Downar, Ali John Zarrabi and Margaret Ross
We've covered psychedelics on the podcast before—first in 2019 with Ira Byock, where we explored their potential role in medicine, and then again in 2023 with…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastHIV, Aging, and Palliative Care: Peter Selwyn and Meredith Greene
Peter Selwyn, one of today's guests, has been caring for people living with HIV for over 40 years. In that time, care of people with HIV has changed…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPotentially Unsafe Low-evidence Treatments: Adam Marks, Laura Taylor, & Jill Schneiderhan
More and more people are, "doing their own research." Self-identified experts and influencers on podcasts (podcasts!) and social media endorse treatments that…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastLoss of DEI Hurts Everyone: Farah Stockman, Ali Thomas, Ken Covinsky
I read Farah Stockman's article in the NYT on why attacks on DEI will cost us all, and thought, "Yes, and 'everyone' includes harm to our healthcare workforce…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastRCT of PC in ED: Corita Grudzen, Fernanda Bellolio, & Tammie Quest
Early in my research career, I was fascinated by the (then) frontier area of palliative care in the emergency department. I asked emergency medicine clinicians…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastGeriPal Takeover! Nancy Lundebjerg and Annie Medina-Walpole
Whelp, goodbye folks! Eric and I have been DOGE'd. In a somewhat delayed April Fools, Nancy Lundebjerg and Annie Medina-Walpole have taken over podcast host…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPragmatic Trial of ACP: Jennifer Wolff, Sydney Dy, Danny Scerpella, and Jasmine Santoyo-Olsson
A pragmatic trial evaluates the effectiveness of a treatment or intervention in "real-world" clinical practice. Outcomes are typically assessed from available…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastHastening Death by Stopping Eating and Drinking: Hope Wechkin, Thaddeus Pope, & Josh Briscoe
Eric and Alex have featured discussions about complex bioethical concepts around caring for people at the end of life, including voluntarily stopping eating…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastThe Roots of Palliative Care: Michael Kearney, Sue Britton, and Justin Sanders
As far as we've come in the 50 years since Balfour Mount and Sue Britton opened the first palliative care at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, have we…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPC for People Experiencing Homelessness: Naheed Dosani
I was very proud to use the word "apotheosis" on today's podcast. See if you can pick out the moment. I say something like, "Palliative care for people…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPC for Patients with Substance Use Disorder: Janet Ho, Sach Kale, Julie Childers
Much like deprescribing, we plan to revisit certain high impact and dynamic topics frequently. Substance use disorder is one of those complex issues in which…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastTrauma-Informed Care: A Podcast with Mariah Robertson, Kate Duchowny, and Ashwin Kotwal
Trauma is a universal experience, and our approach as health care providers to trauma should be universal as well. That's my main take-home point after…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPlenary Abstracts at AAHPM/HPNA: Yael Schenker, Na Ouyang, Marie Bakitas
In today's podcast we were delighted to be joined by the presenters of the top scientific abstracts for the Annual Assembly of the American Academy of Hospice…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastHow to Make an Alzheimer's Diagnosis in Primary Care: A Podcast with Nathaniel Chin
Things are changing quickly in the Alzheimer's space. We now have biomarkers that can reasonably approximate the degree of amyloid build-up in the brain with a…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastTelehealth vs In-Person Palliative Care: Guests Joseph Greer, Lynn Flint, Simone Rinaldi, and Vicki Jackson
It is a battle royale on this week's GeriPal podcast. In one corner, weighing in at decades of experience, well known for heavy hits of bedside assessments…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastDeprescribing Super Special III: Constance Fung, Emily McDonald, Amy Linsky, and Michelle Odden
It's another deprescribing super special on today's GeriPal Podcast, where we delve into the latest research on deprescribing medications prescribed to older…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastCaring for the Unrepresented: A Podcast with Joe Dixon, Timothy Farrell, Yael Zweig
Many older adults lose decision-making capacity during serious illnesses, and a significant percentage lack family or friends to assist with decisions. These…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPalliative Care for Mental Illness: A Podcast with Dani Chammas and Brent Kious
We've talked a lot before about integrating psychiatry into palliative care (see here and here for two examples). Still, we haven't talked about integrating…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAI for Surrogate Decision Making?!? Dave Wendler, Jenny Blumenthal-Barby, Teva Brender
Surrogate decision making has some issues. Surrogates often either don't know what patients would want, or think they know but are wrong, or make choices that…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastStories We Tell Each Other to Heal: Ricky Leiter, Alexis Drutchas, & Emily Silverman
We've covered stories before. With Liz Salmi, Anne Kelly, and Preeti Malani we talked about stories written up in the academic literature, such as the JAMA…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastCoping with Serious Illness: Danielle Chammas and Amanda Moment
Denial. Substance use. Venting. Positive reframing. Humor. Acceptance. All of these are ways we cope with stressful situations. Some we may consider healthy or…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastFalls and Fractures: A Podcast with Sarah Berry
Falls are very common among older adults but often go unreported or untreated by healthcare providers. There may be lots of reasons behind this. Patients may…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastDialysis vs Conservative Management for Older Adults: Manju Kurella Tamura, Susan Wong, & Maria Montez-Rath
We recently published a podcast on palliative care for kidney failure, focusing on conservative kidney management. Today we're going to focus upstream on the…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastCOVID Updates: A Podcast with Peter Chin-Hong and Lona Mody
In March 2020, we launched our first podcast on COVID-19. Over the past four years, we've seen many changes—some positive, some negative. While many of us are…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastMedical Cannabis Revisited: A Podcast with David Casarett and Eloise Theisen
Cannabis is complicated. It can mean many things, including a specific type of plant, the chemicals in the plant, synthetic analogs, or products that have…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastGuidelines or Goals in Heart Failure: Parag Goyal, Nicole Superville, and Matthew Shuster
When treating heart failure, how do we distinguish between the expanding list of medications recommended for "Guideline Directed Medical Therapy" (GDMT) and…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastIntentionally Interprofessional Care: DorAnne Donesky, Michelle Milic, Naomi Saks, & Cara Wallace
In fellowship, one of the leaders at MGH used to quote Balfour Mount as saying, "You say you've worked on teams? Show me your scars." Scars, really? Yes. I've…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastImages of the Dying: A Podcast with Wendy MacNaughton, Lingsheng Li, and Frank Ostaseski
Can death be portrayed as beautiful? In this episode, we share the joy of talking with Wendy MacNaughton (artist, author, graphic journalist) and Frank…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastStepped Palliative Care: A Podcast with Jennifer Temel, Chris Jones, and Pallavi Kumar
If palliative care was a drug, one question we would want to know before prescribing it is what dose we should give. Give too little - it may not work. Give…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastWell-being and Resilience: a Podcast with Jane Thomas, Naomi Saks, Ishwaria Subbiah
Well-being and resilience are so hot right now. We have an endless supply of CME courses on decreasing burnout through self-care strategies. Well-being…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAllowing Patients to Die: Louise Aronson and Bill Andereck
In today's podcast we set the stage with the story of Dax Cowart, who in 1973 was a 25 year old man horribly burned in a freak accident. Two thirds of his body…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastStump the VitalTalk Communication Experts: A Podcast with Gordon Wood, Holly Yang, Elise Carey
Serious illness communication is hard. We must often deliver complex medical information that carries heavy emotional weight in pressured settings to…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastWhat is Death? Winston Chiong and Sean Aas
We've talked about Brain Death before with Robert (Bob) Troug and guest-host Liz Dzeng, and in many ways today's podcast is a follow up to that episode…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAnti-Asian Hate: Russell Jeung, Lingsheng Li, & Jessica Eng
Anti-Asian hate incidents rose dramatically during COVID, likely fueled by prominent statements about the "Chinese virus." VIewed through the wider lens of…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastBetween Two Urns: Undertaker Thomas Lynch
(We couldn't resist when Miguel Paniagua proposed this podcast idea and title. And no, you'll be relieved to hear Eric and I did not imitate the interview…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastOptimizing Nutrition in Aging: A Podcast with Anna Pleet, Elizabeth Eckstrom, and Emily Johnston
What is a healthy diet and how much does it really matter that we try to eat one as we age? That's the topic of this week's podcast with three amazing guests…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPrognosis Superspecial: A Podcast with Kara Bischoff, James Deardorff, and Elizabeth Lilley
We are dusting off our crystal balls today with three amazing guests who have all recently published an article on prognosis over the last couple months: Kara…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastScreening for Dementia: A Podcast with Anna Chodos, Joseph Gaugler and Soo Borson
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded back in 2000 that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening for…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAgeism and Elections: Louise Aronson and Ken Covinsky
Emergency podcast! We've been asked by many people, mostly junior/mid career faculty, to quickly record a podcast on ageism and the elections. People are…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPalliative Care in Liver Disease: A Podcast with Kirsten Engel, Sarah Gillespie-Heyman, Brittany Waterman, & Amy Johnson
In May we did a podcast on KidneyPal (the integration of palliative care in renal disease), which made us think, hmmm… one organ right next door is the liver…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAnxiety in Late Life and Serious Illness: A Podcast with Alex Gamble and Brianna Williamson
"Anxiety is a lot like a toddler. It never stops talking, tells you you're wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3 a.m." I'm not sure who wrote this…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastUrinary Incontinence Revisited: George Kuchel & Alison Huang
I have to start with the song. On our last podcast about urinary incontinence the song request was, "Let it go." This time around several suggestions were…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastCachexia and Anorexia in Serious Illness: A Podcast with Eduardo Bruera
I always find cachexia in serious illness puzzling. I feel like I recognize it when I see it, but I struggle to give a clear definition or provide effective…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastSexual Function in Serious Illness: Areej El-Jawahri, Sharon Bober, and Don Dizon
As Eric notes at the end of today's podcast, we talk about many difficult issues with our patients. How long they might have to live. Their declining cognitive…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPalliative Care for Kidney Failure: Sam Gelfand, Kate Sciacca, and Josh Lakin
The landscape of options for treating people with kidney failure is shifting. It used to be that the "only" robust option in the US was dialysis. You can…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastHow Pharma Invents Diseases: A Podcast with Adriane Fugh-Berman
Who gets to decide on what it means to have a disease? I posed this question a while back in reference to Alzheimer's disease. I'll save you from reading the…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPublic Facing Education via Social Media: A Podcast with Julie McFadden, Matt Tyler, Sammy Winemaker and Hsien Seow
On today's podcast, we've invited four hospice and palliative care social media influencers (yes, that's a thing!), all of whom focus their efforts on…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPalliative Care Nursing: Podcast with Betty Ferrell about ELNEC
As Betty Ferrell says on our podcast today, nurses play an essential role in care of people with serious illness. Who spends the most time with the patient in…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastThe Promise and Pitfalls of AI in Medicine: Bob Wachter
Eric asks the question that is on many of our minds - is the future of AI more Skynet from Terminator, in which AI takes over the world and drives humanity to…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastAmbivalence in Decision-Making: A Podcast with Joshua Briscoe, Bryanna Moore, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby & Olubukunola Dwyer
Ambivalence is a tough concept when it comes to decision-making. On the one hand, when people have ambivalence but haven't explored why they are ambivalent…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastSurrogate Decision Making: Bernie Lo and Laurie Dornbrand
In 1983, a 25 year old Nancy Cruzan was thrown from her car while driving home in Missouri, landing in a water filled ditch. She was resuscitated by EMS, but…
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine PodcastPC Trials at State of Science: Tom LeBlanc, Kate Courtright, & Corita Grudzen
One marker of the distance we've traveled in palliative care is the blossoming evidence base for the field. Ten years ago we would have been hard pressed to…