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Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: "The Human Connection of Palliative Care: Ten Steps for What To Say and Do"

"Palliative care is an interprofessional specialty focused on symptom management, quality of life, and relief of distress for patients who are living with serious illness and their families. The UCSF Interprofessional Palliative Care Continuing Education Course (Practice-PC) was created in 2015 to address a workforce shortage that is a key limiting factor in the dissemination of palliative care."

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: "Most people who need palliative care are not dying. They are living, and often for a very long time with serious illnesses.... They have a tremendous burden of suffering and caregiver distress, but they are not dying. Palliative care was an answer to that gap. It was recognizing that living with a serious illness nowadays is almost always a chronic disease. No matter how long people have to live, they deserve the same attention to quality of life, treatment of symptoms, management of depression, support for their families, and support for social issues like financing and housing. It should be based on need, not prognosis." -- Diane Meier, MD

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: BJ Miller, MD @ UCSF Palliative Medicine - one of the foremost experts and innovators in the field. "You don't have to spend much time there (Zen Hospice) to realize that the most crucial, and distinctive, piece of the operation is its staff of volunteers. Freed of most medical duties by the nursing staff, the volunteers act almost as existential nurses. They sit with residents and chat, offering their full attention, unencumbered by the turmoil a family member might feel. The volunteers are ordinary people: retired Macy's executives, social workers, bakers, underemployed millennials or kibitzing empty-nesters. Many are practicing Buddhists. Many are not. (Miller isn't.) But Buddhism informs their training. There's an emphasis on accepting suffering, on not getting tripped up by one's own discomfort around it. "You train people not to run away from hard things, not to run away from the suffering of others," Miller explained.

"Dedicated defender of the beauty of humanity, the senses and of a life well lived to the end, palliative care physician and activist BJ Miller brings his expansive vision to bear on the state of the end of life experience. BJ shares his take on the current situation and offers possible routes for how we might close the gap between intention and action in our search for generative solutions that reshape how we think about illness, dying and caregiving."

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: This is a touching personal narrative that helps us understand the origins of Dr. Meier's compassion.

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: Serious Illness Digital Ecosystem (SIDE) is the intentional aggregation of disparate digital and mobile health technologies into a single system that connects all of the actors involved in serious illness patient care. The 5 pillars of a SIDE are: Identification, Education, Engagement, Service Delivery, and Remote Monitoring. To me, this is just a preliminary and pragmatic first step(s). It also misses or misrepresents large care gaps, e.g. framing as the need for education/engagement of patients vs directing to physicians/providers. That said, I think there are still some useful constructs for us here for digital infrastructure.

"Biomedical Ethics Seminar Series: Special Event  End of Life Liberty: Empowering Dying Patients with Choices. An overview of the evolving changes in law and medicine governing patient autonomy at the end of life over the past 2 decades. What has been learned? What changes ought be considered? Can we move to normalize the practice of aid in dying within the practice of medicine? Do some states offer a model for practice governed by standard of care? Do psychedelic medicines offer a new palliative tool for patients with anxiety? What is the status of the research, and federal, state and local law governing psychedelic substances.

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: "Enhancing the experience of caregiving by teaching mindfulness and compassion" Zen Caregiving Project is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California with over 30 years of experience in practicing and teaching mindfulness-based, compassionate caregiving. We offer courses, workshops, and training for professional, family, clinical, and volunteer caregivers. Through our work, we provide a context for public discussion of caregiving, loss, and death.

This resource is especially meaningful for me. Thank you for sharing it!

BJ Miller, MD reminds us to consider the fullest view of what it means to be human - from the messy, uncomfortable issues that arise around dying to the delight of being alive in our bodies - as a path to understanding the possibilities available to open to design for the end of life experience.

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: Virtual Conference - On Demand - June 16 - November 17, 2020 A wide range of topics will be covered, but all relate to how compassionate care can support goals like workforce well-being, patient experience, safety, quality and innovation, as well as additional content to support caregivers and leaders during this challenging time.

Recommended by DeAunne Denmark MD PhD: Our Mission To put compassion at the heart of healthcare through programs, education and advocacy. Our Vision: A world where all who seek and provide healthcare experience compassion.