Spring CQEL Meeting Showcases New Leadership, Research on Palliative Care Consults

Katherine Courtright, MD, MSHP (top left), Jane Schell, MD (top right), and Kathleen Unroe, MD, MHA, MS, participate in a panel discussion on serious illness research.

The Coalition for Quality at the End of Life (CQEL) convened for its first meeting of the year on April 9 via Zoom. Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) COO and Chief Program Officer Nancy Zionts, MBA, kicked off the spring meeting with an appreciation of outgoing CQEL co-lead Robert Arnold, MD, who has departed UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh and taken a new role at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Dr. Arnold had a profound influence on JHF's End of Life work, and his support of the Foundation's initiatives and the next generation of palliative care/end-of-life practitioners locally will be missed.

Zionts welcomed the new CQEL co-leads: Emily Jaffe, MD, MBA, VP and executive medical director of Enterprise Palliative Care Strategy and Implementation at Highmark Health, and Jane Schell, MD, assistant professor of Nephrology and Palliative Care at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Health System and section chief of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics at the University of Pittsburgh, join Zionts and JHF Medical Advisor Judith Black, MD, MHA, in leading the Coalition going forward.

Inspired by last fall's National Academies workshop on serious illness care research, the meeting featured updates on palliative care research in long-term care and hospital settings. Kathleen Unroe, MD, MHA, MS, associate professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, research scientist at the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, and founder and executive officer of Probari, Inc., presented her research on strategies to address the unmet palliative care needs of individuals living in nursing homes. Katherine Courtright, MD, MSHP, assistant professor of medicine and core faculty in the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, shared results of a randomized trial of default palliative care consultations for seriously ill hospitalized patients. Following the presentations, Dr. Schell led the speakers in a panel discussion centered on the common themes arising from their work. Both presentations highlighted the importance of incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data when conducting serious illness research.

Alexander Nesbitt, MD, palliative care physician at UPMC Susquehanna Health Supportive and Palliative Care, shared an update on POLST legislation. Dr. Nesbitt stressed the importance of advancing SB 631, POLST legislation introduced by Senator Gene Yaw last year, and encouraged those who can to write letters of support for the bill.