Meera Agar

1 month ago | onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Peter Allcroft |David Lim |Ingrid Amgarth-Duff |Meera Agar

Introduction People with advanced heart failure (New York Heart Association Functional Class III or IV or the American Heart Association Heart Failure Stages C and D) experience a significant symptom burden, which includes a symptom constellation of breathlessness, fatigue, pain, anorexia, and psychological concerns of fear, anxiety and depression.1, 2 Comparatively, this symptom cluster may impact quality of life to a greater degree than those living with advanced cancer.3 In addition,...

Mar 20, 2024 | journals.sagepub.com | ’s Note |Amy R. Villarosa |Meera Agar |Ariana C Kong

What is already known about the topic? •Poor oral health among people receiving palliative care is common and can impact on wellbeing and quality of life. •In Australia, palliative care is often coordinated by a medical practitioner. •Medical practitioners could play a role in integrating oral health care into the management plan of people receiving palliative care services. What this paper adds? •Medical practitioners are aware about the oral health needs of clients.

Mar 7, 2024 | journals.sagepub.com | Slavica Kochovska |Fliss EM Murtagh |Meera Agar |Jane Phillips

What is already known about the topic? •Palliative care is a referral-dependent specialty, with a research base that comprises a large proportion of observational studies. •Lack of agreed referral criteria contributes to the heterogeneity of population(s) served by palliative care, while the often inadequate descriptions of study populations or settings contribute to the variability in patient and caregiver data presented to clinicians.

Jan 2, 2024 | bmjopen.bmj.com | Meera Agar |Wei Xuan |Jessica Lee |Gregory Barclay

MethodsProspective cohort study. Patients registered with the specialist palliative care services in five Local Health Districts (LHDs) in metropolitan Sydney were eligible to receive a PEACH package if they were assessed as likely to be in the last week of life (terminal or deteriorating phase of illness15 and Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Scale score≤40,16 have burdensome symptoms and/or require increased level of support, and had a preference to die at home.

Feb 13, 2023 | mdpi.com | Michael Morris |Zhixin Liu |Meera Agar

4. DiscussionThis retrospective medical record review describes the population characteristics of patients using medicinal cannabis at a clinic in Sydney, Australia and provides data on the effectiveness and safety of medicinal cannabis treatment on patient conditions and indications. In our study, the mean age of patients was higher than in international studies (40–50 years) [14,15,16,17,18,19].