News

How might a health care proxy volunteer program look in Massachusetts? How can we best recruit and train volunteer health care proxies to ensure health care decisions made for each patient align with what matters most to them? What role can the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care best play in developing such a program? These are the questions that Fiona Pat explored in 2020-2021 as part of her graduate Capstone Experience at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics.

The Coalition is delighted to have South Shore Health, Almgren Law Group, and CareNavigate join as a member organization because of the commitment is has shown to the present and future needs of the serious illness community.

C-TAC, the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, recently held their 2021 Policy Forum, and our executive director Anna Gosline served as a guest speaker in one of the sessions, “How Federal and State Policies and Innovations are Reshaping the Advance Care Planning Landscape.”

Thank you to the almost 150 individuals who joined our Meet & Greet the POLST Form virtual session. It was great to see so many stakeholders represented and your thoughts and suggestions made for an excellent discussion. Watch the recording and learn more about the MOLST to POLST Advisory Group here.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation (BCBSMA Foundation) is now recruiting applicants for the eleventh cohort of emerging leaders for the Massachusetts Institute for Community Health Leadership (MICHL) program that begins this fall.

In March 2021, Massachusetts officially began the important work of transitioning the current paper-based MOLST Program to the much improved POLST electronic form and statewide electronic registry. We want to hear your ideas on how to make this a successful transition. Please join us for our first session where we will introduce the POLST form and discuss the changes it introduces.

The Massachusetts eHealth Institute at MassTech is seeking digital health startups with solutions for unpaid family caregivers to compete in the Massachusetts Digital Health COVID-19 Recovery Challenge. The Challenge is focused on finding solutions for unpaid caregivers who provide support to loved ones outside of traditional child rearing. Applications are due July 30, 2021.

When it comes to getting the care that supports what matters most, there is a lot to talk about. Community Conversations: Sister to Sister in Cambridge, MA provides a forum for Black women to learn from experts -- also Black women -- on everything from allergies to elder care.

From the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, a Coalition member: Health care facilities in Massachusetts are beginning to ease a series of unprecedented visitation restrictions in place since early 2020. They are now taking stock of lessons learned over the past 15 months about coronavirus transmission, infection risks and the consequences of sequestering patients and people who live in residential care settings away from family caregivers and friends.

Our Executive Director, Anna Gosline, is participating in the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) Policy Forum on May 12, 2021. The forum offers changemakers an insider-view of federal serious illness care policies that they can leverage to drive change in their communities.