Palliative Care ECHO Update NIH , York University, Association of Palliative Medicine

welcome to our September Clinical ECHO on Wednesday 30 September at 3.30 pm.

It’s a full-on meeting, with a wonderfully eclectic programme!

Matt will kick us off with four musings that have occupied him over the summer, exploring patterns of sleep, neuropathic pain descriptors, new sources of evidence for palliative care clinicians, and quantum understandings of consciousness and dying.

Kate will then take us to Sweden, sharing her research on thirst in palliative care.

We have a first for Clinical ECHO with Sir David Spiegelhalter,  our first Knight of the realm speaker, who will take a statistical look at uncertainty. Sir David is renowned not only for his outstanding work in statistics, but also for his remarkable ability to make complex ideas accessible, engaging and understandable.

We’ll also hear from Lucy Carpenter about changes in bereavement leave legislation, and from Gloria Chan, who will give us a preview of what to expect at the forthcoming Hospice UK conference.

As always, it promises to be a stimulating and wide-ranging Clinical ECHO, with plenty to think about!.

The July first Clinical ECHO. Matt takes a look at the challenges of looking after patients where the therapeutic relationship

is strained. How do we provide good care and also look after ourselves and our teams. Kate looks at a paper examining the content of Hospice Websites in the UK.

We hear from Hospice UK about their new programme seeking improve care for those experiencing socio-economic hardship and Professor Fliss Murtagh outlines an opportunity for Hospices to explore the use of AI within the in-patient setting.

Lots has been happening this month also to keep up to date with.

Hope you find it helpfu.l

Max, Matt and Kate

This ECHO  Matt has been preoccupied with the issues surrounding burnout and its implications not so much for us as individuals but for our organisations. 

Kate  has been looking at the use of an Ethics consultation service across German Palliative Care services

We look forward to hearing from Derek Willis as he describes how he has developed a palliative care collaboration for people with rare neurological conditions such as Muscular dystrophy.

We are so pleased also that Fliss Murtagh is also joining us and it is a fantastic opportunity to hear Fliss outlining the amazing work which she and others have been doing looking at the health economics of palliative care delivery and how our services save money in terms of end of life care over the last year of life. We have already highlighted this 2026 paper. In times of economic restriction Fliss’s commentary will be invaluable in our conversations with commissioners and politicians on the importance, economic benefit and system need of sustainable, uniform palliative care services across the UK. 

The April Clinical ECHO is focussed on populations who may not sit comfortably within traditional Palliative Care systems and services.

Matt takes a look at the rapidly increasing number of synthetic “recreational”drugs and the challenges in delivering Palliative Care to patients who are using such medications  both from a symptom management viewpoint as well as in terms of keeping staff, patients and families “safe.” Kate looks at a paper from Canada looking at the factors surrounding the concept of homelessness and the definitions useful to organisations seeking to help those termed by society at large as “homeless”.

Audrey Roulston looks at deaths in Prisons across the UK in a study examining all such deaths over a four year period.

We also celebrate the first ever Greener Palliative Care Awards with Kate Crossland who explains the award system and why it has been created.

Finally we here from Anita on the work being done to improve the career development pathway of palliative care nurses in England, work which is due to report back by the end of July.

The clinical ECHO from the Palliative Care Congress in Brighton covers a range of areas.

Matt and Max outline what has been happen9ng in the Palliative Care World this past Month.

Kate introduces the latest "Temel" paper, this time looking at financial analysis of Palliative services.

We hear from Dr. Helen McGee on the use of AI to improve efficiency and reach of community Palliative Care services .

We conclude with (Dr.) Jeremy Sassoon a former psychiatrist and now Jazz musician giving his take on palliative care and caring his latest single Older and Wiser. We hope you enjoy the ECHO,

Max Matt and Kate.

The first ECHO of 2026 gives Matt a chance to look back at previous ECHOs and, in this time of ever more siloed thinking to review the whole nature of debate and common debating weaknesses used repeatedly in current disputes.

Kate has a really interesting paper looking at the need for support for palliative care community workers to help them sustain their vital work.

Libby Sallow provides an update on the four years since the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death report was published and the impact that it is still having.

Anita Hayes has another update, - with details on the latest happenings of the Modrn Service Framework for palliative and end of life care.

As usual it is a packed and full agenda. Its great to be back!

Max, Kate and Matt

In the last episode of 2025 we take a look at Acute Responses to Palliative Care need in Kent and Medway with Rakesh Koria and then in the Accident and Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital with Dan Soutar.

Kate's paper this month looked at differences between urban and rural palliative care delivery and Desi Karakitsiou gave an update on Famcare 2 and its value in benchmarking palliative care services across the UK.

We begin this month with a snapshot of the HospiceUK annual conference in Liverpool from Max

This month focuses on Palliative care Nursing with Kate providing an overview of the historical background and Julie Ling, from the WHO, detailing progress and initiatives on an international scale. Nationally, Sheree Fagge provides an in-depth account of the challenges and the vision for Palliative care nursing from across the NHS. Catryn Smith from the RCN brings a workforce perspective and highlights the passion, opportunities and difficulties in working in this area and growing and sustaining the collective vision. Finally Heather Richardson and Annie Charman introduce the Shiny Mind app whch provides a range of resources and information to help support the health and well being of individual nurses involved in palliative care.

It's another full on session!

This month Matt looked at dofferent service delivery models for finacing palliative care services. We heard from Mhoira Leng about refugee palliative care and the growing recognition of the palliative care need among the millions of displaced persons in our world. Katherine Sleeman introduces the IMPACT centre and its potential to improve the awareness of up to date evidence from research. Cat Sullivan summarises the learning from the Extending Frailty Care project recently completed by Hospices from across the UK. Kate Flemming's paper this month again picks up on th international theme with a review of the palliative care needs of refugees living in resettlement situations.

It is a full on ECHO. we hope you enjoy it and benefit from these amazing speakers.

Matt, Max and Kate,

This month we look at the pros and cons of advance care planning (ACP) and why it has failed to have the impact for which so many hope. Matt is an ACP sceptic and he outlines his reasons.

Kate looks at deprescribing in her journal article and how communication is central in such advance planning.

Matt Gloudeman is so passionate about the importance of emergency planning that he set up his own company to provide people with the opportunity of ACT that works.

Emma Winstanley is dedicated to improving the rates of Corneal retrieval from patients dying in Hospices and both the planning and the conversations required to make this happen. Finally we are off to Helsinki where Anita Hayes was attending the European Association of Palliative Care Conference. Anita gives an overview of the things that caught her eye amongst the 2,000 delegates from all over the world.

This is our lask ECHO before the summer break. We hope you enjoy it.

Max, Matt and Kate

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