Roundtable Discussion Highlights Vital Role for Palliative Care in Health Care Reform

New Rochelle, NY, January 15, 2010—Opinion leaders in the field of palliative medicine explored the unparalleled opportunities that now exist for the palliative care community, which matches treatment to the desires of informed patients and their families, to help define evolving health care reform policy. The thought-provoking Roundtable discussion, “Palliative Medicine: Politics and Policy,” is published online ahead of print in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. ( www.liebertpub.com). The Roundtable is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/jpm.

The moderator, Diane E. Meier, MD, from the Center to Advance Palliative Care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City, led a lively discussion focusing on the need to change public perception of palliative care and to educate the public and policymakers on how palliative medicine can contribute to improved quality and greater cost-effectiveness of health care, two of the cornerstones of current health care reform efforts. In October 2009, Dr. Meier began a health policy fellowship in Washington, D.C., with the goal of learning how process and politics influence health policy.

Participants in the Roundtable included David J. Casarett, MD, from the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania, Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine, and Provost, Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice (California), Walter J. Smith, SJ, PhD, from HealthCare Chaplaincy (New York City), and C. Porter Storey Jr., MD, from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (Glenview, IL) and Colorado Permanente Medical Group (Denver).

The discussion explored the successful approach to end-of-life care in the Veteran’s Administration health system and how it could serve as a model for the nation. The participants urged the palliative care community to be more proactive in promoting education and awareness, initiating a public conversation and countering misinformation, and demonstrating to politicians and stakeholders how palliative medicine has an important role in policies aimed at improving outcomes and linking evidence-based quality measures to reimbursement.

“Health care reform in the U.S. has put palliative care issues at the forefront of policy and politics as never before. As with all change, there are both opportunities and challenges. This roundtable discussion by national experts illustrates some of the nuance that is missing from the media reports,” says Dr. von Gunten.

Journal of Palliative Medicine is the Official Journal of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and an Official Journal of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA).

Journal of Palliative Medicine, published monthly in print and online, is an interdisciplinary journal that reports on the clinical, educational, legal, and ethical aspects of care for seriously ill and dying patients. The Journal includes coverage of the latest developments in drug and non-drug treatments for patients with life-threatening diseases including cancer, AIDS, cardiac disease, pulmonary, neurologic, respiratory conditions, and other diseases. The Journal reports on the development of palliative care programs around the United States and the world, and on innovations in palliative care education.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including AIDS Patient Care and STDs, Population Health Management, and Briefings in Palliative, Hospice, and Pain Medicine and Management, a weekly e-News Alert. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 60 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available at www.liebertpub.com.

Public TV’s “Open Mind” Features
HealthCare Chaplaincy CEO

Tune in to New York City cable channel 75 (CUNY TV) on Sunday, January 31st at 9:30 am or 8:30 pm to hear The Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J. interviewed on The Open Mind, the longest-running interview program in public television.

Also, the program will air on WNET Channel 13 at a date to be announced, and on February 1 will be available online through a link on the homepage of our website.

Father Smith talks candidly on topics that include health care reform, the role of professional multifaith chaplaincy in palliative care, defining spirituality, the culture of dying in America, and the enhanced assisted living residence that HealthCare Chaplaincy is planning to build in New York City.

Since the Open Mind's first broadcast in 1956, host Professor Richard Heffner has interviewed hundreds of influential figures. Guests have included The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Elie Wiesel, HealthCare Chaplaincy trustee and worldwide palliative care expert Dr. Kathleen Foley, William F. Buckley, Gloria Steinem, and Milton Friedman.

Each new Open Mind program tackles an important contemporary issue, and the online digital archive of more than fifty years is seen as a form of living history.

Next month’s edition of HealthCare Chaplaincy Today will report more about Father Smith’s interview.

Chaplain’s Music Transcends Differences

By Chaplain Osvaldo Tañón
Supervisory Resident
St. John’s Riverside Hospital

I often use music in my chaplaincy. I’ve led services with music in the hospital. I’ve had the profoundly moving experience of playing for patients in their rooms -- for those recuperating, for those very ill, and for those near the end of life.

Those bedside visits stick in my memory because of the powerful emotional and spiritual connection with the patients.

Music can transcend differences in belief, ideologies, doctrines and even culture.

Music and chaplaincy complement each other because both seek to find points of connection in the midst of adversity. Both music and chaplaincy empower individuals and groups to explore new possibilities and new ways of being.

Ultimately, both seek the healing that only comes from within, the healing of the self.

A musician is a minister, even if the music played is not religious in content. Consider how millions of people find meaning and comfort in different songs they hear, and how they “relate” to musicians they don’t know personally.

Two of my current clinical pastoral education students lead weekly worship services at a local nursing home which is part of our hospital system here in Yonkers. For many of the nursing home residents, including those with dementia and other chronic conditions, you can tell that music is the part of the service they enjoy the most.

For me, in my own spiritual journey, I am able through music to connect with the transcendent at a deeper level. Some people practice meditation; others read or say prayers out loud. With music I incorporate many practices at once.

Music is not just sound waves that travel through the air at the rate of different frequencies. Rather, music is prayer, meditation, energy, solitude, comfort and passion. Nothing brings more balance to my chaplaincy work on a daily basis than music.

Click Click Here to hear Chaplain Ozzy Tanon perform "Heart of Worship", a song by Michael W. Smith. Ozzy sings and plays guitar, and his colleague Chaplain Tom Chirdo accompanies him on piano.