RESOURCES FOR PHYSICIANS
- General Resources
- Pain Control & Palliative Treatment
- Information on Hospice
- Medical Search Engines: Information on Research and Other Publications
GENERAL RESOURCES
The Aid in Dying Communication Project
Informational and educational resources for physicians to help them understand patients' requests for aid in dying, and understand their own issues abouht the topic and their decision making processes.
Includes an "On-line Doctor Finder," searchable directory of JAMA articles and links to other medical sites.
Center to Improve Care of the Dying
Direct link to the Center's advance planning questionnaire. The Center's home page can be found here at http://www.gwu.edu/~cicd/
The Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is designed to educate physicians on the essential clinical competencies in end-of-life care that every physician should have.
- Growth House: Guide To Death, Dying, Grief, Bereavement, and End Of Life Resources
An excellent source for links to a variety of organizations and resources related to death and dying.
- Innovations in End-of-Life Care
This site, a project of Last Acts, is of special interest to health care professionals and administrative leaders of health care organizations. It includes an international peer reviewed online journal and a discussion forum for ideas and innovations in the field of end-of-life care. The site welcomes submissions to the journal from all professionals. Information is available on the site.
- This evolving site provides information on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Last Acts Campaign. Its extensive resources include press releases, an electronic newsletter, current activities in the project, and grant information.
PAIN CONTROL AND PALLIATIVE TREATMENT
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
AAHPM is an organization for physicians who are committed to furthering and fostering the practice of hospice/palliative care for the terminally ill and their families.
American Academy of Pain Management
This resource provides the names of credentialled pain practitioners and pain management programs by zip code; offers direct access to the National Pain Data Bank for outcome measurement; provides links to other pain-related sites; and has information about the agenda for the annual clinical conference in September for each year.
American Academy of Pain Medicine
The mission of the American Academy of Pain Medicine is to provide quality care to patients suffering with pain, through the education and training of all physicians, through research, and through the advancement of the specialty of Pain Medicine.
APS is a nonprofit multidisciplinary educational and scientific organization dedicated to serving people in pain, through research, education, treatment, and professional practice.
- Growth House
The international gateway to resources for life-threatening illness and end of life care and decision making. Includes a large section on Palliative Care.
This web site provides a guide and index of internet information to those in pain. This site is targeted to care givers, family and friends of those suffering from pain.
A specific set of links devoted to the treatment of cancer pain.
Medical College of Wisconsin Palliative Care Program
This program is committed to improving care for the dying in America through the development, implementation, and dissemination of innovative education and clinical care programs.
Provides another valuable set of resources, including how to contact physicians specializing in the treatment of pain.
A site established by a hospice nurse listing another set of valuable resources. Highly recommended!
- The Palliative Page
Here you can find extensive links to a wide range of international and domestic sites. The site is managed by a palliative care nurse.
The Place of Palliative Medicine
From the "All Things Considered" television broadcast, a transcript featuring Robert Segal on the use of palliative medicine vs. euthanasia.
This site provides professional, research, and self-help resources for health care workers, researchers, and parents caring for children in pain.
UW Pain and Policy Studies Group
The UW Pain and Policy Studies Group is the study of public policy in relation to pain management, identifying and addressing the barriers to medical use of opioid analgesics.
INFORMATION ON HOSPICE
- Hospice Hands
This site provides another reliable source of information. It includes an index of hospice and palliative care resources, original articles, a chatroom, a question and answer forum, and job and education information for hospice students and professionals.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
The main web page of the NHO. Founded in 1978, the National Hospice Organization is the oldest organization devoted exclusively to hospice care.
A direct link to the National Hospiceand Palliative Care Organization's database of hospice programs across the United States.
The Boston Globe: Choosing a Good Death
An in-depth series of stories, about five individuals facing death, with focus on hospice in end-of-life care.
Supports the hospice concept through educational programs and grants; site includes online version of Journeys, a newsletter to help individuals deal with grief and loss.
- Hospice Web
Excellent introduction and overview; full of useful information.
- A link to professional hospice organizations around the world from Africa to Asia to Europe and America.
MEDICAL SEARCH ENGINES: INFORMATION ON RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
The National Library of Medicine
NLM offers PubMed and Internet Grateful Med, two free systems to search MEDLINE. They both:
Provide an easy way to search the 11 million references and abstracts in the MEDLINE database;
Use PubMed's retrieval engine to link to over 700 journals for full text of articles (some publishers may require a subscription) and provide pre-computed sets of relevant MEDLINE articles;
Offer NLM's Medical Subject Headings for searching; and
Use Loansome Doc for document delivery services (there may be local charges).
Internet Grateful Med Also provides access to other NLM databases on AIDS, bioethics, history of medicine, toxicology, health services research, and other topics.
For consumer health information, consider MEDLINEplus.
