Palliative care boosts heart failure patient outcomes

Systematic introduction of palliative care interventions for patients with advanced heart failure improved patients’ quality of life and spurred their development of advanced-care preferences in a pair of independently performed, controlled pilot studies. But, despite demonstrating the ability of palliative-care interventions to help heart failure patients during their final months of life, the findings raised questions about the generalizability and reproducibility of palliative-care interventions that may depend upon the skills and experience of the individual specialists who deliver the care. To learn more about these 2 studies, go to Family Practice News: http://www.mdedge.com/familypracticenews/article/115737/cardiology/palliative-care-boosts-heart-failure-patient-outcomes.