On August 7 (9AM to 1PM) the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California is hosting a virtual miniconference on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies in Palliative Care: Emerging Practice and Policy. This event was inspired by the robust turnout we’ve had at two previous Annual Summits to interactive sessions and workshops focused on the powerful potential for psychedelic substances to relieve suffering in serious illness.
At the end of this newsletter (Summer 2024), you’ll find links to a handful of studies that have turned up in my email and social media feeds just over the past few months. Though much additional research is needed, effects of immediate, sustained relief from conditions such as treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, existential dread and distress from psychedelic and ketamine therapies are – well – mind blowing.
We’ve also been watching carefully as two bills were moving through the California legislature this year, proposing expert panels and regulatory structures to allow access to a range of psychedelic substances for therapeutic use. Unfortunately, it appears that neither bill will advance this year – in large part due to State budget constraints – but the conversation and interest continues, and, of course, ketamine is legally available. The legislative author of one of the bills, Assemblymember Marie Waldron, will attend the miniconference to offer additional insights into efforts to expand legal access.
Our panel of experts presenting at the miniconference will address the history of therapeutic psychedelics, the clinical state-of-the-science, applications in spiritual care, and the current policy landscape. Following brief presentations on these topics, the panel will answer your questions. This promises to be a fascinating, enlightening, and inspiring event!
Speaking of inspiring, I’ve lately been digging into applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare generally and palliative care in particular. For fun, I spent a few days in late May at the “GenAI” conference in San Francisco, immersing myself in an event that, among many other novelties, had longer lines for the men’s room than the women’s.
It was – well – mind blowing. What’s happening now with AI, and the speed with which it is happening, truly, without any exaggeration, promises to completely transform the way we live and move and work and even have our beings. The subject is vast and quickly becomes highly technical, and a blog is no place to unpack it. I’ll be moderating a panel presentation at this fall’s Coalition to Transform Advance Care (C-TAC) Annual Summit to explore some of the immediate and potential impacts on serious illness care from AI and its implications through an ethical lens.
Even though palliative care is traditionally (and sometimes proudly) a “low-tech, high-touch” specialty, it’s already being enhanced by AI’s capabilities – to name just a few:
- Prognostication, for more accurate identification of palliative care-eligible patients and timely introduction of goals of care conversations (here’s one of many examples)
- Conversational AI, to teach, facilitate, and capture provider–patient interactions more effectively and vastly improve “customer service” functions for organizations. (Interesting work is being done on this at Dana-Farber and at EmpowerHope.ai)
- AI agents and assistants, to relieve administrative burdens of clinicians and make more efficient use of time and resources. (Check out this article from a palliative care physician using AI to capture patient visit notes – and the “data” it missed in the interaction!)
- Digital characters, immortalities, and “resurrections,” using generative AI, “deep fake” video, and voice simulation to represent individuals living or dead to facilitate learning or accompany the grieving. (Check out this article from McGill about a “Chatbot Cicely Saunders” or this one about a hospice patient developing an avatar of himself to keep his wife company after his death.)
Excited? Dubious? Leery? Downright freaked out??? Whatever our reactions to the use of AI in healthcare, we’ll need to deal – and ideally exploit its power to improve patient-centered care. AI, among many other things, will create efficiencies of time and cost. How will your organization use this “AI dividend”? Will AI undermine the essential human factors in healthcare – or create new space for them to flourish? Let’s all work to ensure the latter!