Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care is a specialized medical audio feed for people who work close to serious illness, dying, family care, and health-system decision-making. Its center of gravity is palliative medicine. The format shifts between concise research summaries and longer oral-history conversations, giving the show both journal-club utility and institutional memory. The research episodes are direct and structured. Authors introduce a paper, explain the clinical problem, describe methods or cases, and state the practical takeaway. A case series on phenobarbital in pediatric home-based terminal care focuses on refractory symptoms, loading doses, continuous subcutaneous infusion, and the need for stronger guidance. An editorial on palliative care and assisted dying compares experience across settings, including Canada and the UK. Another episode examines sexual health during the last 18 months of life for patients with advanced cancer and their partners. A qualitative study from Hong Kong brings attention to progressive neurological diseases, fluctuating symptoms, loss of function, fear, relationships, and late access to palliative care. The oral-history episodes add a different kind of evidence. Charles von Gunten reflects on hospice and palliative care, hospital hierarchy, doctor culture, nursing structures, and the need to use authority carefully. Shirley Otis-Green speaks with emotional force about social work, moral distress, patient and family advocacy, and learning from moments when care fell short. These conversations are candid. They also stay grounded in professional responsibility. The show’s pace is academic but not detached, moving from definitions and findings into the emotional consequences of clinical practice. It is most useful for listeners who already know the language of serious-illness care or want to understand how palliative medicine thinks from the inside. Its strength is the combination of published research, practical clinical reflection, and personal testimony from people in the field. The result is not entertainment-first medical media. It is careful, serious audio for people trying to improve care when comfort, advocacy, and uncertainty all matter at once.