News

Dr. Jennifer Reidy believes that anyone who graduates from medical school should be able to lead effective, compassionate conversations with people with serious illnesses. As the chair of the Massachusetts Medical School Collaborative and an associate professor at UMass Chan Medical School, she is leading an effort to integrate palliative care into the core medical school curricula in her home state.

Last week, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) announced that small-scale clinical testing of the POLST Program elements will begin in June. Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington and Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, along with their local partners in EMS, Skilled Nursing Facilities, and outpatient practices, will lead the clinical testing phase.

It’s with great sadness that we share the news that our Coalition’s first Executive Director, Richard Averbuch, passed away last week. Richard led the Coalition from 2016 to 2019 –he took it from an idea to an organization. And he did it all with a spirit of kindness, humility, collaboration, and care.

Do you enjoy seeing people in three dimensions? ‘Cause we last held an in-person Summit on May 16, 2019 and just a few things have happened since then. We’ve got four Mini-Summits this spring to bring us back together! Thank you to our Coalition members who will be graciously hosting us around the state, including Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Care Dimensions in Danvers, Blue Cross in Boston, and UMass in Worcester.

We have a new member joining us at the Coalition: Circle Advocacy, founded by Judy Korik Weinstock, a practicing physician and patient advocate. Judy spoke to us about the experiences that drove her to create this organization, dedicated to supporting patient agency and well-being.

We are excited to announce four new member organizations to our Coalition! 

• All Care VNA & Hospice
• Interstitial Lung Disease Collaborative
• Sewa Home Care
• Circle Advocacy

Our members are working towards our shared goals in many different ways, strengthening communication, collaboration, and connection.  Read more about these organizations and why they have chosen to partner with us.

In 2016, the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care (MCSIC) was formed through a collaboration of local healthcare, advocacy, and academic institutions. The mission of the organization is “to strengthen the communication, collaboration, and connection between the healthcare system and communities, and between patients and clinicians, to support what matters most to everyone seeking care, especially people living with serious illness” (MCSIC, 2022). The MCSIC convened a nursing taskforce comprised of faculty and community leaders to strengthen nurses’ abilities and confidence to provide high-quality, inclusive, and equitable care for people living with serious illness in Massachusetts. The goal of this group was to be a leader in preparing and educating all nurses in palliative care and serious illness communication...

A couple weeks ago, I was on a panel about the intersection of spirituality and serious illness care. I was one of the speakers reacting to a landmark meta analysis, published in JAMA, led by Tracy Balboni, a researcher and radiation oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It found high quality evidence that spiritual care was broadly associated with better serious illness outcomes. (Probably not a surprise to all of you.) The whole evening left me buzzing on a million ideas, but I was especially struck by two things:

Inspired by recent study, Divinity School panelists explore the spiritual side of health care. Making patients feel psychologically safe about discussing their spirituality is key, said panelist Anna Gosline, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care.

Another big step for the transition to a MA POLST Program - RFR for electronic registry released! You might have noticed, but in case you missed it, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, on behalf of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA), Department of Public Health, and the Mass HIway has issued a Request for Responses (RFR) to procure a vendor to implement, maintain, and support the Massachusetts ePOLST registry. The Coalition will be holding a virtual event on Friday, March 17th from 11am- 12pm ET to give you a broader sense of what’s happening with the transition from MOLST to POLST and answer any questions.