Rave Reviews

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Umberfield EE, Fields MC, Lenko R, et al. An integrative review of the state of POLST science: what do we know and where do we go? J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2024;25(4):557-564.e8. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2024.01.009.

This integrative review describes the existing research on Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and related documents. The authors found that, while most studies were nonrandomized, POLST use was associated with concordance between treatment and documentation and preferences concordant with documentation.

Kruser JM, Nadig NR, Viglianti EM, Clapp JT, Secunda KE, Halpern SD. Time-limited trials for patients with critical illness: a review of the literature. Chest. 2024;165(4):881-891. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2023.12.014.

This narrative review seeks to synthesize extant data on time-limited trials for patients with critical illness. While clinicians tend to that agree time-limited trials may be helpful, we lack robust, high-quality evidence across academic and nonacademic settings evaluating their use, efficacy, and reception. The authors find significant variability in clinician understanding and use of time-limited trials and, importantly, limited data describing patient and family perspectives on use of time-limited trials in the ICU.

Witham G, Regier NG, Saylor MA, et al. A scoping review of global patterns in reporting race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion in palliative care randomized controlled trials: recommendations for transparency [online ahead of print November 15, 2024]. Palliat Med. doi:10.1177/02692163241291352.

This scoping review examines trends and gaps in the reporting of racial, ethnic, nationality, and religious demographics across global, nonpharmacological palliative care randomized controlled trials. Most studies reported race and fewer reported ethnicity, religion, and nationality. In the studies reporting race, most participants were White/Caucasian, yet a minority of these studies discuss racial homogeneity as a limitation to generalizability.