Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27533892›Full record

SynthesisJournal of palliative medicine2016

Populations and Interventions for Palliative and End-of-Life Care: A Systematic Review.

Adam E Singer, Joy R Goebel, Yan S Kim, Sydney M Dy, Sangeeta C Ahluwalia, Megan Clifford, Elizabeth Dzeng, Claire E O'Hanlon, Aneesa Motala, Anne M Walling and 6 more

Registry-linked trialOpen access · greenAbstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of palliative medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03996642 (Feasibility of Delivering an Avatar Life-review Intervention to Support Patients With Active Cancer), which is not on this map. Cited by 63 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
63citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
15.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03996642 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2019, after this paper: background citation

Feasibility of Delivering an Avatar Life-review Intervention to Support Patients With Active Cancer

TypeinterventionalSponsorVirginia Commonwealth UniversityRan2019 to 2019Enrolled11ConditionsCancerArmsAvatar Life Review
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

63 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 176 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Pooled it
  10. Pooled it
  11. Quality of life and appraisal factors of patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025
    Trial
  12. Trial
  13. Trial
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Palliative care outpatient interventions to limit aggressive care at end-of-life for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcomas.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025
    Article

3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.

Adam E Singer1 David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California.
Joy R Goebel3 School of Nursing, California State University , Long Beach, Long Beach, California.
Yan S Kim4 Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California , Oakland, California.
Sydney M Dy5 Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore, Maryland.
Sangeeta C Ahluwalia2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
Megan Clifford2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
Elizabeth Dzeng6 Division of Hospital Medicine, University of California at San Francisco , San Francisco, California.
Claire E O'Hanlon2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
Aneesa Motala2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
Anne M Walling1 David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California.
Jaime Goldberg9 Supportive Care Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles, California.
Daniella Meeker10 Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California.
Claudia Ochotorena11 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles, California.
Roberta Shanman2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
Mike Cui12 RAND Corporation , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Karl A Lorenz2 RAND Corporation , Santa Monica, California.
RAND Corporation · USCedars-Sinai Medical Center · USJohns Hopkins University · USKaiser Permanente · USSan Francisco General Hospital · USStanford University · USUniversity of Southern California · USVA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System · US

Funding

UCLA Clinical and Translational Science InstituteUL1TR000124 · NCATS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI DUBINETT, STEVEN M. · 2012 to 2015
$57.0M
UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training ProgramT32GM008042 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI AJIJOLA, OLUJIMI A, DAWSON, DAVID WAYNE · 1985 to 2023
$29.9M
Trajectories and Palliation Study (TAPS)R01NR013372 · NINR · RAND CORPORATION · PI LORENZ, KARL · 2011 to 2014
$1.4M
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR000124NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM008042NINR NIH HHS R01 NR013372
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

importanceEvidence supports palliative care effectiveness. Given workforce constraints and the costs of new services, payers and providers need help to prioritize their investments. They need to know which patients to target, which personnel to hire, and which services best improve outcomes.

objectiveTo inform how payers and providers should identify patients with "advanced illness" and the specific interventions they should implement, we reviewed the evidence to identify (1) individuals appropriate for palliative care and (2) elements of health service interventions (personnel involved, use of multidisciplinary teams, and settings of care) effective in achieving better outcomes for patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system. EVIDENCE REVIEW: Systematic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews databases (1/1/2001-1/8/2015).

resultsRandomized controlled trials (124) met inclusion criteria. The majority of studies in cancer (49%, 38 of 77 studies) demonstrated statistically significant patient or caregiver outcomes (e.g., p < 0.05), as did those in congestive heart failure (CHF) (62%, 13 of 21), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; 58%, 11 of 19), and dementia (60%, 15 of 25). Most prognostic criteria used clinicians' judgment (73%, 22 of 30). Most interventions included a nurse (70%, 69 of 98), and many were nurse-only (39%, 27 of 69). Social workers were well represented, and home-based approaches were common (56%, 70 of 124). Home interventions with visits were more effective than those without (64%, 28 of 44; vs. 46%, 12 of 26). Interventions improved communication and care planning (70%, 12 of 18), psychosocial health (36%, 12 of 33, for depressive symptoms; 41%, 9 of 22, for anxiety), and patient (40%, 8 of 20) and caregiver experiences (63%, 5 of 8). Many interventions reduced hospital use (65%, 11 of 17), but most other economic outcomes, including costs, were poorly characterized. Palliative care teams did not reliably lower healthcare costs (20%, 2 of 10).

conclusionsPalliative care improves cancer, CHF, COPD, and dementia outcomes. Effective models include nurses, social workers, and home-based components, and a focus on communication, psychosocial support, and the patient or caregiver experience. High-quality research on intervention costs and cost outcomes in palliative care is limited.

Indexed as

Terminal CareCaregiversDementiaHealth Care CostsHumansPalliative Care

Identifiers

PMID27533892
PMCPMC5011630
OpenAlexW2516619794

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.