TRACK(S): GER, NEU, TRA

Moderator: Alexandra M. Easson, MD, FACS, Toronto, ON
Co-Moderator: Susan D. McCammon, MD, FACS, Galveston, TX

Early integration of palliative care is associated with improved quality of life, reduced costs, and longer survival in patients with advanced cancer and chronic progressive disease. Core principles include: management of symptoms and suffering, building personal resilience, discussions of patients’ goals of care, and training in advanced communication skills. How this may apply to complex surgical patients with more acute problems and during discrete episodes of care has yet to be defined. This panel includes established and emerging evidence for initiatives that upstream palliative care into surgical populations: screening and early intervention in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients, decision making that balances expectations about preand postoperative risks for complex elective surgery, and transitional models of care in advanced cancer when new treatments make outcomes uncertain.

Presentations and Speakers

Introduction
Alexandra M. Easson, MD, FACS, Toronto, ON

Palliative Care in Trauma: The First 48 Hours
Herb A. Phelan, MD, MSCS, FACS, Dallas, TX

High-Risk Surgery: Preoperative Decision Making
Margaret L. Schwarze, MD, FACS, Madison, WI

Determining Goals of Care in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit
Anne C. Mosenthal, MD, FACS, Newark, NJ

Early Integration of Palliative Care in Complex Surgical Oncology
Phillippa Hawley, BMed, FRCPC, Vancouver, BC