Benefit of a Palliative Care Drug Information Service and User Experience: A Cross-sectional Study Using a Web-based Online Survey.

A specialized drug information service can assist professionals in collating relevant information and hereby help to increase medication safety. It is only helpful if the information provided can also be put into practice, though. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of a specialized palliative care drug information service AMInfoPall and its users' experience. A web-based survey among health care professionals subsequent to inquiry between 07/2017 and 06/2018 was conducted. Twenty questions related to the use and transfer of received information into clinical practice and the result of the consecutive treatment. Invitations to participate/ reminders were sent out 8 and 11 days after receiving the requested information. The survey's response rate was 119/176 (68%). Most participants were physicians (54%), followed by pharmacists (34%) and nurses (10%), 33/119 (28%) worked in palliative home care teams, 29 (24%) on palliative care units, and 27 (23%) in retail pharmacies. 86/99 respondents had conducted an unsatisfiable literature search before contacting AMInfoPall. 113/119 (95%) were satisfied with the provided answer. Information was transferred into clinical practice as recommended in 65/119 (55%) cases and led to a change in patient status in 33%, mostly improvement. No change was reported in 31% and in 36% it was unclear. AMInfoPall was well accepted and mostly used by physicians and palliative home care services. It provided helpful support for decision-making. The obtained information was mostly well transferable into practice.

National strategy for palliative care of severely ill and dying people and their relatives in pandemics (PallPan) in Germany - study protocol of a mixed-methods project.

BACKGROUND: In the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, general and specialist Palliative Care (PC) plays an essential role in health care, contributing to symptom control, psycho-social support, and providing support in complex decision making. Numbers of COVID-19 related deaths have recently increased demanding more palliative care input. Also, the pandemic impacts on palliative care for non-COVID-19 patients. Strategies on the care for seriously ill and dying people in pandemic times are lacking. Therefore, the program 'Palliative care in Pandemics' (PallPan) aims to develop and consent a national pandemic plan for the care of seriously ill and dying adults and their informal carers in pandemics including (a) guidance for generalist and specialist palliative care of patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 infections on the micro, meso and macro level, (b) collection and development of information material for an online platform, and (c) identification of variables and research questions on palliative care in pandemics for the national pandemic cohort network (NAPKON). METHODS: Mixed-methods project including ten work packages conducting (online) surveys and qualitative interviews to explore and describe i) experiences and burden of patients (with/without SARS-CoV-2 infection) and their relatives, ii) experiences, challenges and potential solutions of health care professionals, stakeholders and decision makers during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The work package results inform the development of a consensus-based guidance. In addition, best practice examples and relevant literature will be collected and variables for data collection identified. DISCUSSION: For a future "pandemic preparedness" national and international recommendations and concepts for the care of severely ill and dying people are necessary considering both generalist and specialist palliative care in the home care and inpatient setting.