Palliative Care in Cancer Care
Improving quality of life for people with cancer, and their families, reduces suffering and preventable readmissions while improving quality outcomes. CAPC partners with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to advance access to high-quality palliative care for all people with cancer.
This toolkit contains clinical training for conducting effective conversations about treatment goals, managing pain and other symptoms, collaborating effectively with specialty palliative care teams, and applying evidence-based best practice models.
What’s in the Toolkit
Resources for Oncology Teams at the Intersection of Palliative Care
A range of resources to help providers integrate primary palliative care policies and practices into the oncology setting.
ASCO Guideline calling for routine use of early and concurrent palliative care for advanced stage cancer patients.
National accreditation standards for cancer care, requiring provision of palliative care services, navigation programs, and psychosocial distress screening.
Recommended clinician training to improve on OCM measures.
Excerpt from presentation delivered to oncology practices describing how palliative care can support successful participation in the Oncology Care Model
Collaborating with Palliative Care Teams
Know how to describe palliative care to patients and families and when to refer.
User-tested language on how to talk about what palliative care is and why it's needed.
This study highlights disparities in palliative care utilization for people living with cancer.
Checklist of triggers for referral to a specialty palliative care team.
Searchable directory of specialty palliative care providers, filtered by care setting.
Information for patients and families about palliative care.
On-Demand Webinars
CAPC is thrilled to be collaborating with ACS to support equitable access to high-quality palliative care services for people living with cancer, and their caregivers. These on-demand webinars highlight emerging trends in research, care design, and clinical best practices for both oncology teams and palliative care teams.
This is the first webinar in our ACS series, focusing on emerging trends in research, care design, and clinical best practices for both oncology and palliative care teams.
This is the second webinar in our ACS series, focusing on emerging trends in research, care design, and clinical best practices for both oncology and palliative care teams.
Communication Skills
Communicate about what matters to patients and families in order to create a care plan aligned with what is most important to them.
Techniques for communicating with patients and caregivers about their serious illness and eliciting patient hopes, fears, and priorities for care.
Tools for refining your palliative care program’s marketing strategy, and your messaging.
Pain and Symptom Management
Assess and safely manage pain, dyspnea, nausea and vomiting, constipation, anxiety, and depression.
Training and clinical tools for managing pain in patients living with serious illness, with a focus on safe opioid prescribing and risk assessment for substance use disorder.
Comprehensive clinical training courses on chronic pain management, risk mitigation, assessing opioid misuse, and assisting with access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) for patients living with serious illness.
Opioid pocket reference for providers including safe starting doses, equianalgesic chart, and standard dosing strengths.
In this case review, the presenters review ketamine pharmacology and current evidence for its use in palliative care pain management, discuss documented dosing protocols, and share clinical experience.
In this on-demand case review, participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the historical context and status of medical cannabis use, focusing on its transition from traditional to therapeutic applications.
Training curriculum and clinical tools for assessing and managing five common symptoms in patients living with serious illness.
In this Master Clinician session, Drs. Danielle Noreika and Emily B. Rivet look at the pathophysiology and causes of nausea and vomiting in people living with cancer.
In this case review, discover practical tools and strategies to effectively assess and manage fatigue, enhancing patient outcomes.
Best Practice Models
Case studies and guidance for improving symptom management and achieving goal-concordant care.
Recommended clinician training to improve on OCM measures.
Use of screening to risk-stratify patients for palliative care based on need. CAPC and the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative.
Integration of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) into the routine care of patients with metastatic cancer is associated with increased survival compared with usual care. Basch, et. al. JAMA 2017.
Patients with advanced cancer randomized to receive outpatient specialty palliative care lived longer and had better quality of life. Hoerger, et. al. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, September 2018.
Faculty
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Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, FAAHPM
Founder, Director Emerita and Strategic Medical Advisor, Center to Advance Palliative Care
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Allison Silvers, MBA
Chief Health Care Transformation Officer
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Brynn Bowman, MPA
Chief Executive Officer, Center to Advance Palliative Care
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Claire Ankuda, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Includes 27 resources:
- The Case for Communication and Symptom Management Training
- Clinical Training Recommendations for All Clinicians Caring for Patients with Serious Illness
- Implementing a Training Program
- Resources for Reinforcing Skills
- Case Studies and Additional Resources