Germany and the U.S. share a keen interest in exploring the potential of care management programs for the chronically ill. Despite obvious health system differences, in both countries there has been a proliferation of disease management models, initiated by a variety of actors, paid for in different ways, targeting different types of population groups, and encompassing a broad menu of intervent...

Investigators from the Critical Care Continuous EEG Task Force of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society reported a consensus statement on indications for the use of critical care continuous electroencephalographic monitoring (ccEEG) in adults and children.

0 n 15 February of this year, shortly after the number of people Dr. Jack Kevorkian had helped to commit suicide swelled to fifteen, the Michigan legislature passed a law, effective that very day, making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The law, which is automaticallv reDealed six months after a I ‘ newly established commission on death and dying recommends pe...

CONTEXT Community-based clergy are highly engaged in helping terminally ill patients address spiritual concerns at the end of life (EOL). Despite playing a central role in EOL care, clergy report feeling ill-equipped to spiritually support patients in this context. Significant gaps exist in understanding how clergy beliefs and practices influence EOL care. OBJECTIVES The objective of this stu...

BACKGROUND A screening spiritual history (SSH) is how health professionals (HP) identify patients' spiritual values, beliefs and preferences (VBPs) in the outpatient setting. We report on attitudes and practices of HPs in the largest Protestant health system in the U.S., the Adventist Health System (AHS). METHOD Physicians or mid-level practitioners (N = 1082) in AHS-affiliated practices were...

When I began my career with dual training in bioethics and law, my research and clinical interests were focused on the suffering of terminally ill adults due to unwanted treatment and how perceptions of law among health care providers contributed to this problem. A central goal of my work was to try to prevent situations where physicians would aggressively continue to treat patients in ways con...

Three commentaries are presented on a case conference, "Truth at the last--a case of obstructed death," which appeared in the March 1982 issue. The case involved collusion between a physician and a family member to withhold the truth from a terminally ill patient. The commentaries discuss the possible psychological need of dying patients to resolve "unfinished business," and the physician's g...

Approximately 10% of children grow up with a parent who has been diagnosed with a chronic medical condition (CMC) and seem to be at risk for adjustment difficulties. We examined differences in behavioral, psychosocial and academic outcomes between 161 adolescents from 101 families with a chronically ill parent and 112 adolescents from 68 families with healthy parents, accounting for statistical...