The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Advanced care planning: Accounting for changing perspectives

    GeriPal is rethinking advanced care planning (ACP).

    Rather than focusing on making prespecified decisions, ACP should help patients and their families make the best possible in-the-moment decisions.

    GeriPal’s inspiration comes from a recent article by Rebecca Sudore and Terri Fried.

    Patients’ goals and preferences change as their health and circumstances change. For example, many healthy elders would say that living with disability is unacceptable to them. However, once they become disabled, they adapt. and their view of quality of life and treatment preferences change to reflect their new perspective.

    The bottom line?

    The article contains many suggestion for helping patients prepare for in-the-moment decisions. GeriPal lists and expands on a few of them.

    • Help motivate patients to prepare.
    • Help clarify values.
    • Clarify whether values have changed.
    • Establish whether the patient wants to give the surrogate leeway in decision-making.

    9/21/10 11:17 JR

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