The Coalition for Quality at the End of Life Collaborates to Bring in National Expert on Disparities in End-of-Life Care for African American Communities

The Coalition for Quality at the End of Life (CQEL) invited Dr. Richard Payne, Director of the Institute on Care at the End of Life at Duke University, to Pittsburgh as a consultant on March 19 and 20, 2007. He delivered a public lecture, attended a special CQEL meeting, and participated in a working lunch held by CQEL's Committee on Engagement of Underserved Communities. It was a very informative and productive two days, and members of CQEL and the health community in Pittsburgh look forward to working with Dr. Payne the Institute on Care at the End of Life in the future on issues of disparities in palliative and end-of-life care.

"Living and Dying in Black and White: What Do We Really Know, and What Can We Do?"

On March 19, 2007, the Coalition for Quality at the End of Life, the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health, and UPMC Cancer Centers brought Dr. Richard Payne to our region to deliver a special public lecture, "Living and Dying in Black and White: What Do We Really Know, and What Can We Do?" Dr. Payne is an internationally known expert in pain relief, palliative care, oncology, and neurology, who is a pioneer in overcoming disparities in palliative care. With over 100 attendees at the UPMC Shadyside site, this lecture was also attended via teleconference at the following locations:

1. Hospice of Lancaster County
2. UPMC Passavant Hospital
3. UPMC Northwest Hospital
4. UPMC McKeesport Hospital
5. Arnold Palmer Pavilion, UPMC Cancer Center, Latrobe
6. Uniontown Hospital

Dr. Payne's lecture focused on health care disparities for African Americans and how these disparities throughout the life span ultimately impact the care received near the end of life in African American communities. In addition, he discussed several initiatives that have been undertaken to try to better understand as well as address these disparities.

Please click on the following link to view Dr. Payne's PowerPoint presentation: "Living and Dying in Black and White: What Do We Really Know, and What Can We Do?"

CQEL Meeting

Dr. Payne attended a special meeting of CQEL on Tuesday morning March 20, 2007. Dr. Payne discussed the APPEAL (A Progressive Palliative Educational Curriculum for Care of African Americans at Life's End) curriculum as an example of a strategy to help the health provider community be more effective at communicating with African Americans about the end of life and palliative care issues in specific. The very fact that the APPEAL curriculum needed to be created as an adaptation of the EPEC curriculum of the AMA demonstrates how the needs of minorities can be invisible to the mainstream health establishment.

Dr. Payne then spent the afternoon in a working lunch of CQEL's Subcommittee on Engagement of Underserved Communities. Committee members and other community stakeholders discussed and strategized about how to address and increase the visibility of palliative and end-of-life care issues in underserved communities.

Readers can find additional information on issues related to African Americans and palliative care at the Institute on Care at the End of Life's Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans.